I've Been Chewed Out Before
by IndecisivePsycho
Summary: Aldo Raine telling his story to a young girl more then willing to listen as he talks about their time in Nazi occupied France. Aldo/OC, OC/OC
1. Chapter 1

Jessica Bane walked down her slow quiet neighborhood street with her backpack carelessly slung over her left shoulder, it was getting colder and the leaves were just starting to change colour. As she walked she paused to wave to her neighbor, Mr. Raine. "What are ya'll learning in school these days Jessica?" he called to her. As long as she could remember he had lived down the street, he was pretty quiet, but he knew all of the neighbors and they all knew him.

"We're learning about the war sir." she answered.

"Which war?" he asked referring to the very young Vietnam war.

"World War II sir." she responded as she paused by the fence surrounding his yard.

"Oh yeah?" he asked as he stood up, stepping off his porch he limped his way across his yard with the aid of his cane, to where she was. "What're they tellin' you 'bout the war?"

"They just kind make us read the text book. We're supposed to write a report about the war to read in front of the class." she said with a small shrug. "It's pretty messed up."

"Yeap, it sure was." he said with a nod.

"You fight in the war? Sir?"

"Yeah I sure did." he said with another nod, rubbing his neck, he had this scar around his neck, it looked like a rope burn and it made Jessica a little uneasy, but she didn't want to seem rude so she looked away. "Y'know Jessica, the textbook ain't gonna tell you the truth about the war. You wanna hear the truth, you come on over and ask me."

"Yes sir Mr. Raine." she said politely as she pushed her light red-blonde hair behind her ear.

"Yer mama's gonna need some help with her groceries. Be a good girl, help 'er out." he said looking across the street at her house. She turned and looked and saw her mother had indeed come home from the grocery store.

"Have a good day Mr. Raine." she said as she turned and walked across the street to her house. She grabbed some of the bags out of the back seat of the car and looked back over at Mr. Raine's house as she walked to the front door of the house. Mr Raine was walking back to his porch, where he sat down and picked up a beer bottle, tipping it to his lips he looked at Jessica who blushed lightly and walked into the house.

"Were you talking to Mr. Raine?" her mom, Mary asked as Jessica put the groceries down on the counter in the kitchen.

"Yeah." she said as she took out a loaf of bread and put it in the bread box. Jessica looked at her mother's face who looked deep in thought. Jessica was kind of sad she didn't look like her mom who had been the most popular girl in school in her time, and the prettiest. Jessica had inherited her mom's red hair, but got her dad's grey eyes. Her cheeks were flat and her nose was thin, her lips were full though which was something she got from her father.

"What did Mr. Raine want?" Mary finally asked.

"He asked what we're learning about in school and I told him the war and he told me that he fought in the war and that if I had any questions about it I could go ask him." Jessica shrugged.

"Well that was nice of him." Mary smiled softly. "What kind of questions would you have?"

"Well, we've got to write an oral report on the war and I think Mr. Raine just wants to know what they're sayin' about the war in the text books." she said with a shrug. "I guess sometimes the books aren't completely true, and it would be kind of interesting to hear it from someone who was there." Jessica said as she helped put the groceries away.

"I suppose." Mary said with a shrug. "I just don't like the idea of you going off to some man's house."

"Ma, he's not just some man, he's a Veteran, and our neighbor." Jessica said with a small scoff.

"I suppose it's alright. But we'll talk to your father about this later." she said with a nod and Jessica nodded before she helped her mom put away the rest of the groceries and then started on her homework while her mom started dinner.


	2. Chapter 2

"I don't see any problem with it." Jessica's dad, Brian said that night as they ate dinner. "He is a veteran, and he seems like a nice man. Never heard anyone complain about him before."

"Me either..." Mary said then sighed and shrugged.

"Thanks daddy." Jessica smiled and kissed her dad's cheek. It wouldn't be until Friday afternoon before Jessica got the time to go over to Mr. Raine's. She walked home after school on Friday and found herself slowing down at Mr. Raine's house. He wasn't outside today, but his car was in the driveway which meant he was home. She found herself standing out front of his house for a few minutes before she opened the gate and walked through into his yard and closed it behind her. She walked up to the porch and stood there for a moment debating with herself on whether or not she wanted to go up before she finally climbed up the steps and knocked on the door. A few moments later she could hear Mr. Raine walking down the stairs to the front door.

"Justa Minute!" he called through the door and she could hear him unlocking it before the door opened. "Hey there Jessica." he said when he saw it was her. "Fraid you were someone else." he chuckled.

"Oh," she smiled awkwardly. "No, nope, just me." she said with a small shrug. He nodded and raised an eyebrow and she gasped quickly. "Oh, I was wondering if your offer about telling me about the war was still standing?" she asked.

"Come on in." he said opening the door wider so she could walk in. As she did she she couldn't help but look at the walls, pictures all over them, most of them of two small kids growing up Mr. Raine chuckled lightly seeing one she was looking at. "Dex and Susie when they were four." he said as she looked at him.

"Your kids?" he nodded. "Where are they now?"

"Susie's married, livin in Florida with her husband, got a bun in the oven now. Dex is in college in California." he said rubbing his scar. "Come on inna the living room." he said leading her to a different room. He gestured to a couch and she sat down as he started to walk to the kitchen. "Want somethin? Beer?"

"I'm not 18 yet." she said with a small smile. He nodded and walked into the kitchen then came back with two different looking bottles. He handed one to her and she looked at it slightly nervously and he chuckled.

"Root beer kid." he said and she nodded.

"Thank you." she said and he sat down in his chair before he picked up a small box and opened it, he collected a small amount of snuff on his thumbnail and snorted it before repeating that motion with the other side of his nose and then closed it and looked at it.

"Where to start..." he muttered as he rubbed his scar. "Well, let's start with the Basterds."

"The... Basterds, sir?" she asked.

"Damn what are they teachin' you kids in school?" he asked before he got up and walked over to a wall. He pulled down an old looking picture and brought it over to her. In the picture was nine men including Mr. Raine. "That's Sgt. Donny Donowitz," he said pointing to a handsome man with dark hair and a smirk in the picture. "One of the craziest sonabitches out there but good at what he did."

"Which was?"

"I remember tellin them the plan like it was yesterday." he smiled and she looked at him.

"What did you say to them?" she asked and he looked at her.

"Sum it all up, 'We're going to be dropped into France dressed as civilians. And once we're in enemy territory, as a bushwhackin' guerrilla army, we're gonna be doin' one thing and one thing only... killin' Nat-zis'." he smirked and nodded. "We had one objective. Kill as many nat-zis as possible, and killin nat-zis was our specialty."

"Maybe you should start from the beginning." she smiled and he nodded as he thought back.


	3. Chapter 3

"My name is Lt. Aldo Raine and I'm putting together a special team, and I need me eight soldiers." Lt. Aldo Raine paced in front of seven men lined up, Sgt. Donny Donowitz looked on as Aldo spoke to the men. "Eight Jewish-American soldiers. Now, y'all might've heard rumors about the armada happening soon. Well, we'll be leaving a little earlier. We're gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. And once we're in enemy territory, as a bushwhackin' guerrilla army, we're gonna be doin' one thing and one thing only... killin' Nazis. Now, I don't know about y'all, but I sure as hell didn't come down from the goddamn Smoky Mountains, cross five thousand miles of water, fight my way through half of Sicily and jump out of a fuckin' air-o-plane to teach the Nazis lessons in humanity. Nazi ain't got no humanity. They're the foot soldiers of a Jew-hatin', mass murderin' maniac and they need to be dee-stroyed. That's why any and every every son of a bitch we find wearin' a Nazi uniform, they're gonna die. Now, I'm the direct descendant of the mountain man Jim Bridger. That means I got a little Injun in me. And our battle plan will be that of an Apache resistance. We will be cruel to the Germans, and through our cruelty they will know who we are. And they will find the evidence of our cruelty in the disemboweled, dismembered, and disfigured bodies of their brothers we leave behind us. And the German won't be able to help themselves but to imagine the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, and our boot heels, and the edge of our knives. And the German will be sickened by us, and the German will talk about us, and the German will fear us. And when the German closes their eyes at night and they're tortured by their subconscious for the evil they have done, it will be with thoughts of us they are tortured with. Sound good?"

"Yes Sir!" all of the men shouted and Aldo felt a small twinge of pride for these men.

"That's what I like to hear. But I got a word of warning for all you would-be warriors. When you join my command, you take on debit. A debit you owe me personally. Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps. And all y'all will git me one hundred Nazi scalps, taken from the heads of one hundred dead Nazis. Or you will die tryin'." Most people would have been repulsed by the idea of scalping nazis, not even nazis, men. Most people would have been repulsed by the idea of scalping _Anything_ but these men, they were quick to adapt to the way Aldo did things. The first thing the men learned was that Aldo was dead serious about the 100 scalps. He had a small book he would keep on hand everytime a man scalped a nazi, it would go in the book. It wasn't long before they had busted Hugo Stiglitz out of jail and he was a full time Basterd, raising their count to ten men. Word quickly spread about these Jewish Americans taking out Nazi soldiers before it was soon a problem even The Fuhrer was aware of. A good example of how little mercy they had on the nazis would be best told by example of what Donny Donowitz, AKA 'the Bear Jew' did with his bat.

~*~ "So, you guys just went and started killing off nazis like flies?" Jessica asked and Mr.- Lt. Raine nodded with a small smile.

"Yeap, that's what we did." he said. "Seen a lotta things happen, things I ain't too proud of, but by god, everything me and my men did, we did for this country. We did to take down the real problem-"

"The Jew-hatin' mass murderin' maniac." Jessica said and he nodded.

"Wha'd they say happened to ol' Adolf anyway?" he asked and Jessica picked up her textbook and flipped to the chapter they were working on.

"They said he committed suicide." she said and he scoffed. "Did you kill him?"

"I didn't pull the trigger if that's what you mean, but yeah, we killed him. Lost two men doing it too. Nearly died m'self."

"What happened?" Jessica asked leaning towards him. He smiled at the eagerness she had to hear the story but instead stood up and walked over to a bookshelf in the living room.


	4. Chapter 4

"Ona my men wrote a book. Utivitch." he pulled a book off of the shelf and walked back over to the couch and handed it to her. "Everythang he saw during the war and after." she looked at the cover and then looked back at him. "Should read it."

"Are you going to tell me what happened to Hitler?" she asked and he chuckled.

" 'Course I am." he said. "But I gotta start from the beggining, see after we picked up Stiglitz we got another mission, had to go a bit north, see in those days my general was sending me telegrams but to different names from different names, always in code, that way none of those nazi fucks could pick up on it."

"How'd he know where you would be?"

"I'd always send him one back, also in code. We had ways of doin' that then, these days you got code crackers and such, good thing none of them nazis had a code cracker."

"Seriously." she said and he nodded.

~*~ "Men!" Aldo barked as he walked out of the post office, he had the telegram in his pocket. "Got word from the general. There's another 'Merican soldier stationed just northa here. Ain't checked in with 'is general in a coupplea days, we gotta go check in on 'im, make sure no nazis got to 'im and make sure he checks in with his general."

"Who's his general?" Donny asked as he cracked his neck.

"Northman." Donny and the other American soldiers groaned.

"No wonder he hasn't checked in." Kagen muttered.

"I know, I know." Aldo said with a small smirk. "But, we gotta make sure he ain't dead, or worse." he gestured to the truck they had... Borrowed from the last group of soldiers they had taken out. Aldo driving and Utivitch in the front seat the rest of the men piled in the back and closed the curtain so they looked like just another german truck driving around. It was a five hour trip up to the village, and the place he was staying in was about twelve miles out of the village. It was a windmill, and the sun was low along the horizion when they stopped. A fence surrounded the area and there were a few trees scattered around the property, along with some boulders that stuck out of the ground. As they walked through the fence they heard a sudden gunshot that landed near Aldo's feet making the men jump behind some boulders for cover.

"_Show yourself_!" a voice shouted in french.

"Think that's our soldier?" Donny asked Aldo who looked at him.

"Only one way to find out." Aldo said, then gestured to Stiglitz who had his gun pointed at the windmill.

"_Come on you german basterds_!" the person shouted again and Aldo noticed something.

"Where you from soldier?" Aldo shouted back in english.

"...American?" the person asked.

"Yeap!" Aldo called. "How 'bout you?"

"Who's asking?"

"Lt. Aldo Raine."

"Aldo Raine? Tennessee?"

"Yes." a laugh was heard from the windmill before silence for a few minutes before the front door opened. There, leaning in the doorway was one of the prettiest girls many of the basterds had seen. Her dark hair framed her thin face, her grey eyes sparkled beautifully with just a hint of insanity behind them, but in the business they were in everyone's eyes looked like that. She looked about 5'6" and was an average weight with a bit more then average curves. She walked out down the path a gun slung over her shoulder as the Basterds watched her walk towards their leader who looked, in all honesty, stunned.

"Aldo Raine, god, it's been what, ten, twelve years?" she asked as his brained connected two and two.

"Louise Sebestyen?" he asked in shock and she grinned before he pulled her into a large bear hug.


	5. Chapter 5

"You must have been..."

"Sixteen." Louise said as she and the Basterds sat inside of the windmill. It was a one room place, save for the kitchen and the bathroom that the boys were now taking turns taking ten minute showers each in. Louise had made tea and soup, and the basterds were instantly in love with the girl. "I was sixteen last time I saw you." she spoke with a slight southern accent, but not as noticable as Aldo's.

"Christ, that's right. What the hell are you doing out here?" he asked and she smiled as she nodded to the small arsenal near the door.

"Same as you Aldo." she said. "I'm killin' nazis."

"Does your mama know you're out here?" he asked and she nodded. "Does she know what you're doin' out here?"

"No." she smirked. "She thinks I came out here to become a singer and that France is a strictly neutral zone. Uncle Harvey backed me up on that one. It was his idea."

"So how'd you get stuck with a general like Northman if your uncle is our general?" Donny asked and she rolled her eyes.

"God, don't remind me." she said with a small scoff. "That was Northman's idea, and this," she said waving her hand around. "Is his idea of punnishment."

"Punnishment for what?" Donny asked as Aldo took a bite of his bread he had dipped in his soup. He had to admit for a few days old the bread was still pretty good.

"I shot him in the foot." Louise said simply and Aldo choked on his bread.

"What the fuck?" he sputtered. "That was You?"

"He copped a feel." she said simply. "I mean, there I am, doing my work, minding my own business for christsakes, and he grabbed my ass." she rolled her eyes. "He's lucky I didn't shoot any higher."

"I thought you said this was your uncle's idea." Wicki said suddenly and she looked at him, then nodded.

"I did, the saying I was going to France to become a singer and that France is a neutral zone was his idea. Sending me to france was Northman's idea, because in his words, 'Who would suspect a pretty little face of being a psychotic killer'." she smirked before she stretched. "So, are you guys all staying here?" she asked and they looked at Aldo pleadingly. "There's enough room, I can take the loft upstairs, and-"

"If we're stayin, and I said If!" he said looking at his men. "There's no way we're kickin' you outta your own bed."

"Well, there's the couch there, there's a couch and a small mattress upstairs and I've got a ton of blankets up there too." she said and Aldo nodded before the boys cheered.

"Why do you have all this stuff?" Donny asked as he settled himself on the couch in the loft.

"Hiding jews." she said simply. "They stop here a couple of nights and then make their way elsewhere. It's like the underground railroad, except any geramn soldier who comes by here, gets shot." Aldo settled on the couch downstairs and watched as she gracefully stepped around his soldiers who were sprawled over the floor, Hugo had taken the arm chair he had been sitting in all night and thanked her softly when she handed him a pillow and blanket. She looked so different then Aldo remembered. When they had first met she was just his general's niece a scrawny sixteen year old who worked a desk job, but now she was a beautiful woman who knew how to hold her own in the face of danger and almost certain death. He hadn't even noticed her sit down next to him as the two looked into the fireplace he could feel her move closer to him and he smiled softly looking at her as she looked into the fire. "Thirteen." she said softly and he looked at her as she looked at him. "It's been thirteen years Aldo." she said and he nodded.

"Thirteen years is a long time." he said and she nodded before she quickly stood up and walked over to her bed where she pulled a thick quilt off of the foot of the bed and brought it over to him.

"Good night, Aldo." she said and he took it from her lightly brushing her fingers with his.

"Night Louie." he said using the nickname he had used for her when she was sixteen.


	6. Chapter 6

"So, you picked up a girl?" Jessica asked.

"Well that wasn't originally the plan." Aldo said shaking his head as he took another sip of his beer. "Plan was just to check on 'er, make sure she checked in with 'er general, that kinda thing." he shrugged and then put the beer on the table and sighed. "Where was I?"

"You had fallen asleep at Louise's." Jessica said and he nodded.

"That's right." he smiled lightly.

~*~ The next morning the basterds woke up to gunshots. Aldo jumped off of the couch and practically tripped over Sakowitz as he went to Louise's bed, he pulled back the curtains to see she was gone. "Up here Lieutenant." Donny said from the loft.

"And bring me the machine gun." Louise called down as she reloaded. She popped up in the window and started to scream insults in French and broken German. Hugo chuckled from the chair he was on as he stood up.

"Wha'd she say?" Aldo asked and Hugo shook his head as he picked up the machine gun and handed it up to Donny. Donny handed it to Louise who jumped and then took handing him the gun she was holding. She shouted an insult and then shot again before Aldo went to the front window with his gun he opened it and shot at one of the men who was making it a little too close to the windmill. When the last Nazi was dead she let out a long laugh and then spun away from the window.

"Fuckin' krauts comin' 'round here at the ass crack of dawn." she said as she walked downstairs. "Shit I need a cuppa coffee." She walked into the kitchen area and turned on the stove and put a coffee pot on the burner. She turned around leaning against the counter and ran her hand through her dark messy hair before she looked down at herself. Aldo- and the others- had been quite aware of the fact that all she wore was a white nightgown that ended right above her knees. "Eyes up Kagen." she said as she walked past him. She moved to the small dresser in the room and pulled some clothes out of it and walked into the bathroom shutting the door behind her.

"Kagen," Aldo said looking at him. "I've known her since she was sixteen."

"Sorry sir." Kagan muttered. After Louise came out of the bathroom she threw her nightgown on her bed and started picking up blankets. She folded them quickly, quicker with the help Omar lended her, having three sisters at home he was used to having to help with the laundry.

"Thank you..."

"Omar, ma'am." he said. "Omar Ulmer."

"Well, thank you Omar." she said as she went to the kitchen. Finding ten mugs was near impossible but the boys kept tin cups with them so she filled up their cups with hot coffee and then settled on her couch with her own mug of coffee and looked them over. "Aldo, how did you know I was here?"

"I didn't." he answered with a small laugh. "Got a telegram from the general, said you ain't checked in with Northman in a couppla weeks." she scoffed crossing her legs and set her cup down on the small table next to it.

"Like anyone would want to check in with Northman." she said. "I've been busy."

"We can see that." Wicki said as he lit up a cigarette.

"Yep." she said before she drained the remaining coffee from her cup. "If someone wants to throw another pot on, the coffee is in the tin next to the sink." she said as she pulled her hair into a hat. She put on a pair of boots and pulled on a jacket and gloves.

"Where you going?" Aldo asked.

"Aldo, there's five German soldiers littering my front yard. Not to mention their truck I have to drive up the road some and torch. These things take a lot of work. It's a war darlin'. A war I do _Not_ plan on loosing, therefore, I've got to keep up with what I do." she said before she walked outside.

"Well, shit Louie, let us help." Aldo said as he followed her to the door. "Least we can do after stayin the night here."

"Looks like ya'll be stayin' the night again." she said as she looked at the sky when she stepped outside. Just as Aldo looked up it started to pour heavily.


	7. Chapter 7

Moving the bodies was heavy work, it went by quickly though because the basterds helped. "Alright," Louise said as she pulled the gloves off and stuck them in her back pocket. She wiped the rain off of her face and cracked her knuckles. "Here comes the fun part. Well, the other fun part." she smirked.

"What would that be?" Aldo asked.

"I get to torch the truck." she smirking evily. "I'll be back in an hour or so."

"Woah there," he grabbed her arm spinning her back around. "What makes you think I'm gonna let you go alone?" he asked and she raised an eyebrow.

"Where you takin it?" Utivitch asked and she shrugged.

"Usually just drive it around till I find somewhere and then torch the shit out of it." she said. "One place is as good as another." An hour and a half later the Basterds stood in front of the truck in the rain as Louise swore moving around they heard a thud and Aldo looked up.

"Ya'aright?" he called.

"Yeah." she responded. "Fell over." he chuckled lightly and then took a sniff of his snuff. She emerged a moment later holding what looked like an arm from a german military uniform. "Okay," she said with a smile. "Torching a veichle 101. I figured this out myself, now I doused the entire bed of that truck in gasoline, along with this." she held up the sleeve of the uniform as she walked over to the gas tank she opened it and shoved the sleeve in and then patted herself down. "Donowitz, right?" she asked and he nodded. "Got a lighter?"

"Sure thing doll." he said handing her one.

"Don't call me doll." she said and turned to the truck. "And thanks." she held up the lighter, then moved it below the sleeve. "Now, if I were ya'll, I'd get back in your truck and start it up." she said and they shrugged before doing so. She lit the sleeve only staying a moment to make sure it lit before she turned and jumped into the bed of the basterd's truck. "Go!" she said to Donny who was driving. He hit the gas and they took off down the road before a moment later there was the sound of a loud explosion. Louise burst out laughing looking out the back of the truck as smoke filled the rain filled sky, sure this burn wouldn't last as long as her others due to the rain, but she was happy as hell to hear the tell tale boom of the exploding veichle. Aldo looked back from the front seat at the girl he had known thirteen years ago and thought to himself momentarily, before looking back out the window.

~*~ "So, did she become a Basterd?" Jessica asked and Aldo nodded.

"Yeap, but not that day. It wasn't for awhile before she was fully accepted by the boys either, don't get me wrong, they liked having her around, she could sure as hell cook better then any of us, better lookin then any of us too," he winked and Jessica scoffed lightly with a smile.

"Well I'm sure that didn't hurt any."

"Not at all." he said. "But, she was a girl."

"Yeah." Jessica nodded. "And the boys weren't too fond of that."

"Well, it ain't to say they were sexist really, it's just odd for a group of men to accept a girl so quickly. It helped that she spoke french and some german, Wicki took to her pretty quick for that, tryin' to teach her new stuff. She was a damn good soldier too, lousy driver." he rolled his eyes.

"But, she was a girl." Jessica said and he nodded. "What changed that?" she asked.

"Well, I'll tell you-" he said and opened his mouth but stopped when he heard a knock on the front door. Grabbing his cane Aldo stood up quickly and walked to the front door.

"Evening Mr. Raine," Jessica swore sonftly under her breath hearing her father's voice. She was probably late for dinner if he was here.

"Evenin' Mr. Bane." Aldo responded.

"Is my daughter still over here?" Brian asked. "Her mother's been getting a little uneasy since it's dark and she's not home yet."

"Yes'ir, she is." Aldo said before he cleared his throat. "Jessica, yer daddy's here for you." he called into the living room. Jessica sighed as she got up and slung her backpack over her shoulder. She walked into the hall and smiled at her dad.

"Hi Daddy." she smiled. He seemed to look her over quickly, still not trusting the veteran standing before him before he smiled at Aldo.

"Thanks for keeping an eye on her sir." he shook Aldo's hand. "Come on Jessie." he said and she rolled her eyes at the riddiculous nickname.

"Well, Jess," Aldo said as she walked out onto the porch with her father. "You come back whenever you wanna deal with me rambling 'bout them ol' days, y'hear?"

"Yes sir, Lieutenant." she said and he gave her a small salute before she returned it with a smile and then turned and followed her father off the porch. 


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, Saturday, Jessica woke up early and finished all of her chores as quickly as she could before she practically ran over to Lt. Raine's. He was sitting on the front porch and smiled as she got to the fence out front. "Wonerin' if you were comin' over today." he said as she took a seat on one of the chairs he had on his porch. He reached into the cooler next to him and pulled out a root beer and handed it to her.

"My mama wouldn't let me go till I finished my chores." she said and he nodded as she twited the cap off the root beer and took a sip.

"Where'd I leave off?" he asked.

"Right after Louise torched the truck." she said and he nodded.

~*~ When the Basterds got back to her windmil she made herself busy in the kitchen putting together a big pot of stew, the basterds couldn't help but watch her every move, one moment she was laughing hysterically at the sight of a burning truck and now she was calmly making soup like a normal woman. It was interesting to say in the least.

"Someone want to put on a record or something?" she asked making them jump. They hadn't realized she knew they were watching her. She looked over her shoulder as Utivitch looked at her victrola and started to wind it up.

"How'd you get this place?" Aldo asked as he walked over to her as she cut up a leek.

"It was deserted when I found it." she shrugged. "I figured out in town that a jewish couple lived here. They were taken away at the beggining of the occupation, their death was made official a few weeks later."

"So you've been stayin here since you got to France?"

"No, outside mostly. I've been here for about two months." she said with a smile. "It's a good spot, I've got the loft to use for when the Nazis come around and to hide Jews, and it's indoors." she shrugged. "Can't say I'm a fan of sleeping in trees."

"You were sleeping in trees before?" Donny asked and she looked at him.

"What you expect me to sleep on the ground with a gun where I can be easily spotted by nazis and shot? The nazis tend not to look up." she said rolling her eyes as she dumped the rest of the ingrediants into the soup. She gave it a good stir before she put the lid on it and turned the burner down to low. Utivitch turned on a record and she smiled at his choice before she walked to one of the windows and checked it. "So, how long have you been here Aldo?"

"Bout Two, three months, give or take a few weeks." he shrugged. "Flew straight here from Italy."

"Shit." she said with a lopsided smile. "So my uncle sent here to look for me huh?" she asked as she sat down on one of the chairs.

"Sent us to make sure you're alive and to make you check in with Northman." Aldo nodded.

"Ohhh fun." she twirled her finger around in the air. "Just what I want to pretend I'm sending a telegram to my 'Lover' a man that makes me sick."

"That what he's makin' you do?" Aldo asked with a frown. "Yer uncle know?"

"No." she scoffed. "Northman is a sick fuck like that." she said as she picked at the dirt under her fingernails.

"Sounds like it." Zimmerman said.

"Well, hell, the man's wife isn't fuckin' him." Donny shrugged and Aldo smacked him upside the head.

"Watch your language." Aldo said and Donny looked at Aldo in surprise.

"Every other word out of her mouth is a swear!" Donny protested as the other tried not to crack up, even Stiglitz was smirking lightly.

"Don't matter, be a man." he said and Donny opened his mouth to protest.

"Aldo, darlin', don't worry about it." she said. "Ain't nothin' these men say is gonna make me upset. Probably said worse then them a lot of the times." she said with a shrug and Donny scoffed.

"Doubt it." he muttered and Aldo rolled his eyes.

"Don't encourage him." he muttered loud enough for Louise and Donny to hear. 


	9. Chapter 9

That night Hugo and Utivitch went on patrol in the area surrounding the windmill. As they were gone Aldo and Louise took the oppertuinity to catch up, she had been keeping all of the mentions of her kills, wether the germans knew it was her or not she didn't care, she looked at them as her scalps- which Aldo was telling her about. Most of the boys were asleep -with of course the exception of Utivitch and Hugo. "Whatever happened to Melissa?" Louise asked reffering to the woman that Aldo had been kind of seeing when she had last seen him.

"Melissa?" he asked and she nodded. "Jesus," he laughed lightly. "I haven't spoken to her in years." he shook his head and Louise shrugged.

"You haven't spoken to me in years either," she said. "Maybe this'll become a re-occuring thing, meeting up with old girls you knew in the day."

"Maybe." he chuckled. "I heard she got married, raisin' some kids."

"Yeah most girls are doing that these days." she said with a shrug.

"You aren't."

"I'm not most girls." she said rolling her eyes as she took a sip of her tea she had put on the arm of the couch. Aldo was about to say something when Louise suddenly perked up at a sound from outside. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

"Hear what?" Aldo asked looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought I heard something."

"Musta been one of the boys." Aldo shrugged and she nodded.

"Yeah." she sighed and then realized how close she and Aldo were sitting to each other. She moved over on the couch before standing up. "I'm gonna get to bed. You boys have to be up in the morning." she said as she got off the couch. She walked over to her bed and grabbed her nightdress and went to the bathroom. When she emerged she was wearing a tight long sleeved grey cotton nightgown. Her hair was in a long braid down her back but stuck out at odd spots where her hair was too short to conform to the braid. She picked up the quilt Aldo had slept in the night before and brought it to him, he took it and smiled looking her in her grey eyes. A moment later her soft lips pressed against his cheek. She pulled back a light flush appearing across her cheeks that Aldo could see even in the light only from the fire. "I hope- After the war- It doesn't take you thirteen more years to look me up." she said and Aldo opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by one of the windows breaking, a flaming bottle of alcohol shattering on the floor a good three feet away from where Omar lay spreading flames across the floor.

Louise screamed- Not a feminine scream, more like a scream of fury as she ran to the door not caring that she had basically tripped over Omar who was scrambling away from the flames having awoken from the sound of shattering glass. She grabbed a gun quickly and was closely followed by someone. She threw open her door to see more flames, someone grabbed her around the waist, in the craze of voices, smoke and flames she wasn't sure who. They pulled her away from the flames even though she shouted she could handle it. A moment later the flames on the floor in the living room were out and someone was trying to put out the ones by the door. Voices could be heard outside, then a window in the living room was smashed. A loud piercing whistle from that window let the boys- And Louie- know it was Hugo and Utivitch, Louise was pushed through the window by whomever had pulled her from the front door, she was pulled out the window by Hugo who quickly set her on the ground gasping for fresh air she looked at Utivitch who had a black eye and a swollen lip.

"We were ambushed." he said as he helped her off of the wet muddy ground. Louise brushed herself off before looking at her burning home.

"Fuck." she whispered as the windmil burned.

"Louie-" Aldo looked at her. "Y'alright?" he asked and she glared at him before she turned around.

"Someone tell me you caught who did this." she said simply making Hugo smile at her slyly.

"Thought you'd never ask." Utivitch smiled. 


	10. Chapter 10

After her form of revenge- which consisted of throwing two of the three men responsable for the burning of her home into the fire live and undressing the third- allowing Aldo to carve his own little signature into his forhead and then sending him naked and bleeding into the dense forest. "He won't make it till morning." Louise said as the rain started up again. She stood in the rain in her nightgown and watched the rain putting out the fire.

"You're counting on that aren't you?" one of the boys- she wasn't sure she wouldn't tear her eyes away from the fire- asked.

"If needed I'll go over every inch of forest." she said simply. "He won't make it a mile."

"There could be more out there-"

"There aren't." Hugo said. "We took out at least four of them before one of them," he nodded to the fire. "Took out Utivitch, one of them cracked me in the back of the head." he lightly touched the spot on the back of his head. It had stopped bleeding but was now pretty painful to the touch. Someone draped a jacket over Louise's shoulders. She tore her eyes away from the fire to nod to Donny who- through everything- had managed to save his bat.

"All my guns." she sighed making everyone look at her. "What?" she asked aware that they were looking at her.

"Out of everything that was in there you're most upset about the guns?" Wicki asked and she shrugged.

"I had some nice guns." she said with a small sigh.

"You can hold my gun any time." Donny joked making her look at him and roll her eyes.

"Back off tiger." she said simply as she crossed her arms. It didn't take much for the basterds to get Louise into the truck she seemed to be in a slight daze- which could have been atribbuted to either the shock of the fire or the amount of smoke she inhaled. There was a small cottage a bit closer to town that as Aldo drove in silence she suddenly snapped out of her daze. "Turn here!" she said and Aldo nearly jumped a mile before turning the wheel on the truck sharply. They could hear some of the guys shout as they fell off of the benches in the back.

"Where the fuck are we?" Donny asked as he got out of the back of the truck.

"No idea." Utivitch mumbled as Louise ran to the front door. She knocked hardly and waited a moment before a light turned on inside. The door opened a crack and then all the way a moment later, a thirty something year old man holding a shot gun stood in the doorway shaking his head as he looked at Louise, then he took a moment and really looked at her.

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked and Louise shook her head. "I at least hope they look worse then you." he said and she crossed her arms. He looked over the basterds and then nodded opening the door wider. "Come in." he sighed and the boys went to follow, Aldo caught Louise's arm quickly before she could join them.

"Louise," he paused. "I'm sorry we couldn't save your house."

"It's okay Aldo," she said softly. "We're all alive. Jorge will get us all cleaned up. We can go back in the morning, see if anything survived."

"Louise, I-"

"Aldo," she held up her hand. "It's been a long night. I need some sleep. Please, can we fight, or flirt, or do whatever it is you're trying to do now in the morning?" she asked and he nodded. She turned and walked into the house followed by him as Jorge's wife Isabelle took wet clothes and handed out blankets.

"Louise, upstairs." she said taking one look at the drenched ash covered girl who wordlessly walked upstairs, she had learned not to disagree with Isabelle early on. 


	11. Chapter 11

The next morning Aldo woke up early to hear a shower running. He also heard voices in the kitchen. He got off of the makeshift bed on the floor and stretched before he walked into the kitchen. Louise was laughing and talking with Isabelle. She had been bathed and tied her hair up in a tight bun, she looked as Aldo walked in and smiled lightly at him before looking back to Isabelle who was pouring a cup of coffee for Aldo. "How you feeling?" he asked Louise as he took the coffee.

"Like shit." she shrugged.

"Louie, I'm-"

"Sorry? Yeah, me too." she shrugged. "What are we gonna do about it?" she rolled her eyes. "Like I said, it's a war out there."

"Y'know, I spent most of the night thinkin' about it..." he said and she looked at him.

"And what did you land on?"

"I landed on you comin' with us." he said and her expression changed from indifferent to surprised.

"Coming with you?" she asked and he nodded.

"Why not?" he asked.

"I'll tell you why not." Isabelle said suddenly. "She's only a girl, she might be here to fight but I don't think-"

"Alright." Louise said suddenly making the two look at him.

"You'll be under your uncle's command, which is better than Northman's." he said and she nodded. "We move around a lot more so you'll be seein' more of France-"

"Yeah because that's why I came out here, for the sightseeing." she rolled her eyes with a smile.

"And more of the soldiers. Which you can kill." he said and she smirked. " 'Course you'd be gettin' me my 100 scalps."

"I think I've had a late start, all of the boys have got at least twenty, thirty up on me."

"What's say we count those two from last night?" he asked with a wink and she nodded.

"Alright Aldo," she said with a smile. "I'll go with ya'll." he was about to say something when Wicki walked downstairs and into the kitchen.

"If anyone wants to use hot water, they should do it now." he said and looked at Aldo who put down his coffee cup and walked upstairs to the shower. After showering he dressed again and walked out of the bathroom to see Kagan and Hirschberg folding up blankets. Wicki, Hugo and Louise were in the kitchen along with Donny and Utivitch, Donny and Utivitch were talking to each other and upon closer inspection he realized that Wicki, Hugo and Louise were speaking in German, Louise's case very slow German as the two German born members of the Basterds were trying to teach her more words.

"That's good." Wicki smiled at Louise as she pronounced whatever it was he had told her to try.

"Thanks." she smiled back and Aldo felt his face fall lightly, he didn't like the boys making eyes at her, he didn't know why, probably because he had known her for so long and because he was such good friends with her uncle.

~*~ "You were in love with her, weren't you Lieutenant?" Jessica asked and Aldo nodded.

"Yeah, I was." he said. "Course it took me awhile to realize what I was dealin' with." he rolled his eyes. "Took almost loosing her for me to realize it."

"What do you-"

"Gettin' ahead of myself there." he chuckled lightly. "Don't worry we'll get to it." he said as she looked at him with apprehension. "You hungry?"

"What? I guess- a little." she said looking slightly confused and annoyed she wanted to hear the rest of the story.

"Come on inside. I'll make us some lunch." She followed him inside to the kitchen where he made two tuna sandwiches and put a handful of chips on the side with an apple. "It was always Louie who made me eat healthy." he said gesturing to the apple. "Always said an apple a day'd keep the doctor away. Wish she knew somethin to keep nazis away."

"Because being a basterd didn't cut it?" Jessica asked and he shrugged.

"Sure as hell didn't keep 'em away." he said with a smile. "Now, them nazis, they always found ways to try and take us down, but we always found ways to kill 'em before they knew we were there. Except for the survivors a'course."

"You left survivors?"

"You ever heard of a man named Hans Landa?" he asked and she shook her head. "You will, they'll tell you he's a war hero, that he was on our side the entire time, don't listen." he said shaking his head. "He was known, throughout all of Germany, France and every other Kraut ridden country, as the Jew Hunter. Three guesses how he got that name."

"He hunted Jews." she said softly and he nodded.

"Exactly." he said. "And you know what hunting entails."

"Killing." he nodded again. "So tell me more about him." she said and he took a bite of his sandwich.

"I'm gettin' to it." he said after he swallowed. 


	12. Chapter 12

Sunday morning Jessica woke up and walked downstairs for breakfast, it was her mother's Sunday morning tradition to make waffles, it had been since she was six. "Morning." her dad said as she sat down.

"Morning." she poured herself a cup of orange juice and sat down.

"So, how have things been getting on with Mr. Raine?"

"Good." she said as she sipped the juice.

"He doesn't have any family does he?" Jessica looked at her mom and then shrugged lightly.

"He's got two kids, one of 'em is living in Florida, the other in California."

"He married?"

"I don't know mama." she sighed. "He used to be- I think."

"Why don't you invite him over for dinner?" Her dad asked and Jessica looked at her mom who didn't look to happy about the idea.

"When?" she asked.

"Next weekend." her dad offered. "Invite him over to the party."

"Alright daddy." Jessica said with a small nod.

"What time you going over there?" her mom asked suddenly.

"I don't know. When I finish breakfast, get cleaned up." she shrugged.

"I'm surprised you're even awake at this hour, staying up all night reading in your room, don't think I didn't see the light. Jessica, you're going to be 18 soon, what are you planning on doing with yourself?"

"Do we have to have this conversation every morning?" Jessica asked with a small sigh.

"I think it's a very good question. Tell me you aren't planning on acting like one of those hippies and going to California and... What's the phrase, Dropping in?"

"Dropping out mom." Jessica rolled her eyes.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me young lady."

"You know mom, I was thinking I could move to New York and become a beat writer." she said and this time it was her mom to roll her eyes.

"Have fun with that honey." her dad said from behind his news paper making her mom scoff. As Jessica walked upstairs she could hear the two of them shouting. She got into the shower, cleaned up and then walked downstairs and outside. As she was about to cross the street she heard someone call her name. She stopped and looked up the street as a car slowed down until it stopped outside of her house. She walked to the window and smiled shyly at the driver. "Hey Luke." she smiled at Luke Glosslin, the cutest guy in school and one of her neighbors, he lived down at the end of the block.

"Hey Jess, you doing anything Friday night?"

"No." she shook her head with a smile.

"Do you want to go grab a burger, maybe see a movie?"

"Sure." she smiled. "That sounds like fun."

"Great." he grinned. "Look, I'm on my way to pick my little brother up from the library, so I'd better go." he said and she chuckled lightly before he winked and pulled away from the curb and left her standing there. She quickly crossed the street and knocked on the door to Mr. Raine's house who opened the door after a few minutes and let her in. She followed him to the parlor and stopped noticing a chair under one of the lights in the hallway.

"What's up with that?" she asked and he looked and chuckled.

"Changin' a lightbulb kiddo." he said and she looked at him from the side.

"No offense Lieutenant, but with your leg you shouldn't be climbing on stuff like that." she said as she walked over to the chair, she stood up on it and quickly switched the light bulbs for him.

"Sound like Louie when you talk like that." he grumbled and she looked down at him with a small grin.

"That a bad thing?" she asked and he shook his head.

"Wish more people did act like Louie." he said with a small scoff. "Come on down." he said offering her his hand. She took it and hopped down with a smile and then handed him the old light bulb. "So, where did we leave off?" he asked as they made their way to the parlour. 


	13. Chapter 13

Louise declined the invitation to sit in the front seat with Aldo, sure it would mean she was warm and dry while the boys sat in the back, but then it would mean she was warm and dry while the boys sat in the back. It wasn't fair and for that the boys grew a little fonder of her, seeing her sitting in the back between Hugo and Wicki she looked puny compared to the two large men but she made up for it in sharing her Nazi killing stories, and that famous story of her shooting General Northman in the foot. After a little while of silence she pulled her coat tighter around herself and lit another cigarette. "Fuck." she muttered as she exhaled the smoke. A few of the boys chuckled lightly and she cracked her neck making Hirshberg wince. As they drove on a few of the guys had fallen asleep, Sakowitz and Omar among them. "Why aren't you riding shotgun?" Louise asked Donny who looked at her.

"Hm?" he asked.

"Why aren't you riding shotgun?" she repeated slower as if speaking to a child. "You're second in command, right Sergeant?"

"I grew up in Boston," he shrugged with a smile. "I can handle the cold. Why aren't you sitting up front?"

"I'm a woman." she said imitating his shrug. "I can handle the cold." she smiled.

"Doesn't look like it." he said as she shivered.

"Looks can be deceiving." she insisted.

"Yeah, look at Kagen, he doesn't look like the type to get sick when he shot a Nazi in the balls the other day." Donny turned his attention to Kagen who looked up at the mention of his name.

"Come on Donny," the man protested. "Anyone would've gotten sick, the guy was still alive!"

"You puked everywhere." Donny teased the younger man. "It was so gross. Worse than the blood even."

"I think everyone pukes their first time." Wicki said with a nod as he thought about it. "I know I did."

"Me too." most of the people in the truck agreed.

"It's reflex." Louise agreed. "I mean humans are just programmed like that." she said.

"I puked." Hugo said and everyone looked at him. "The first time." he shrugged and everyone nodded. Even Louise- who had been starved for news during the war- had heard of Hugo Stiglitz. It was hard not to when the Nazis were talking about him so much, and she did steal a news paper here and there from their trucks before she torched them, the only problem being that they were written in German. She could pick up a few words here and there which made it easier for Wicki and Hugo to talk over her. She smacked Wicki's arm as he said something perverse in German to Hugo at that point- Well, not that much easier.

That night they stayed in the woods, making camp. A small group of German soldiers were staying in the woods as well, the cover of night making it that much easier for the basterds to sneak up on the soldiers. "Leave me some for questioning." Aldo said simply, Louise, holding a shotgun she had taken from the truck, smiled. Eight men were quickly taken over, no time to react or fight, they left two for questioning. "English?" Aldo asked them and they both nodded. "Good." he smirked. As he got on with his line of questioning, which revolved around where the next patrol was, how many there were and that sort of stuff Louise had been handed a knife and instructed to scalp her first nazi. He was young with blonde hair, Louise would never forget how the blood stained his hair as she dragged the knife through the flesh. It was tougher then she expected but with the look of approval from Aldo and the encouragement from the boys she managed to get the knife all the way through his scalp and come up from the ground holding his scalp from her hand.

"So," she smiled as the boys cheered for her. "What do we do with them?" she gestured to the two survivors.

"Well," Aldo said as he rubbed his scar. "Since these two boys here have been so cooperative, We're gonna let them go. But first," his eyes glinted with mischief and malice as he turned to the two. "What are you two boys plans for after the war?" he smirked as Louise handed him back his knife. 


	14. Chapter 14

"You started reading Utivitch's book yet?" he asked and she nodded.

"Yes sir." she said with a smile. "It's pretty interesting."

"Yeah, his wife Holly was the one who got him to write it. Wouldn't do it till I gave him the okay though." he chuckled lightly. "Thought it'd be an invasion." he rolled his eyes and Jessica smiled.

"I just remembered, my parents wanted to know if you'd like to come to a dinner party this Saturday?" she asked. He nodded lightly as he thought about it then shrugged as he tipped the beer bottle to his lips.

"Alright." he said with a shrug.

"Great." she smiled.

The next day was Monday, after school Jessica walked home and threw her backpack in her room, her mom was off getting her hair done like she did every Monday which left Jessica enough time to grab a snack and then run across the street. When she did she saw a car in the driveway she didn't recognize, but she walked up to the house and knocked on the door anyways. A young man that looked like a much younger version of Aldo opened the door leaving Jessica speechless for a moment. "Dex?" she asked finally and he frowned lightly.

"Do I know you?" his accent mirrored his father's, and Jessica smiled quickly.

"I'm friends with your dad." she explained. "Is he home?"

"Come on in Jessica." Aldo called from inside the house. Jessica smiled at Dex as he stood to the side and let her in. "Dex is just here while his school is on break. Flew in this mornin'."

"Nice to meet you." Dex shook Jessica's hand and she smiled as Aldo walked across the kitchen and handed her a root beer.

"You too," she was smiling at Dex before looking back at his father. "Thanks." she slipped her hand out of Dex's to take the root beer.

"Dex'll be here through new year." Aldo explained as he pulled his snuff out of his pocket. After taking a hit to each nostril he put it into his pocket and walked into the parlor. "Come on Jess, I've got somethin' I wanna show you." he said and Jess eagerly followed him. Aldo went to the small table and picked up a large hunting knife. He held it out to her and she took it as she sat down in her usual spot.

"This one's yours?" she asked and he nodded. It had a bone handle and a large blade, he watched as she ran her hand over the blade before lightly touching the tip.

"It's pretty dull right now." he shrugged. "Haven't needed to use it in awhile."

"Wow." she said softly. "So this is the one you used to..." she made a gesture and Aldo laughed as he sat down.

"Yeap, that's the one." he said with a small grin, before looking at Dex. "You got somethin' better to do then just hang 'round the doorway all day?" he asked and Dex rolled his eyes.

"Where should I start Dad?" he asked and Jessica smiled lightly.

"Either get in here and listen or go away." Aldo shot back at his son. Dex walked into the parlor and sat down holding his own beer he looked at the two of them.

"What are we talkin' 'bout?" he asked.

"We're talkin' 'bout the war. Y'know the thing you and yer sister were both too ready to believe the textbooks about." Aldo said to Dex who rolled his eyes and took another drink of his beer.

"Oh," Jessica said suddenly, she pulled a paper out of her pocket and unfolded it quickly. "I started a timeline." she handed it to Aldo who took it. The timeline put the basterds movements and actions alongside major events that were happening in the war. Aldo nodded as he looked it over then handed it to Dex who read it and handed it to Jessica again.

"Clever." Dex said and Jess smiled lightly, before looking at Aldo who was thinking.

"Where'd we leave off?" he asked. 


	15. Chapter 15

_Hey I just wanted to say, chapter fifteen! Yay! I am sorry I disappeared for so long, I had a lot of personal things going on, but I'm back now, and I'm ready to keep writing! Also, if you get a chance, check out my new Severus Snape story. Hope you like it, and I hope you like the chapter! Also, I was wondering what you think of the story so far? Do you like it, do you think I've kept to the personalities of the Basterds right? I hope you like it! _

For her first few weeks as a Basterd Louie mostly kept her mouth shut about how things were done, she was interested, a willing pupil the boys realized, and they also realized that Louie loved what she was doing. She loved freezing her ass off in the cold French winter, she loved scalping Nazis and most of all she Loved being a bitch among basterds. Louie loved the way they worked together as a team, almost in a dysfunctional family kind of way. "Do you ever eat anything other than apples?" Donny asked as Louise munched on an apple thoughtfully.

"Do you ever mind your own business?" she asked and a few of the guys chuckled as Donny rolled his eyes, she smiled and nudged him lightly with her elbow. "But to answer your question, yes Donowitz, I do eat other foods. I just like to keep healthy, unlike you."

"What because eating only apples, that's healthy?" he asked as he snatched the apple from her hand taking a large bite she shrugged as she pulled another one from her bag.

"An apple a day will keep the Nazis away." she joked making the boys laugh. They had gotten used to her cocky behavior, she was as bad as Donny sometimes, but she always seemed to have a redeeming quality. Even the boys who weren't quite used to her yet were starting to get over that- Slowly but surely she reminded herself. Rome wasn't built in a day.

"Nazis huh?" Aldo asked. "Thought the whole reason you came with us was to kill more of 'em."

"Of course it was." she said. "And once I've perfected hollowing out an apple I can make miniature apple bombs and throw them at German soldiers." this time everyone laughed. "So, boss, where to next?"

"Stoppin in a little village couppla miles north of here, got a safe house, stay there for a few nights."

"What about soldiers?" Wicki asked and Aldo smiled.

"That's the beauty of it. The Germans have come and gone. Ain't any soldiers left in the village. Think of it as a little break. For a few nights." he shrugged and Omar looked up.

"Are there girls?" he asked and everyone (minus the female of the group and maybe one or two others) looked at Aldo waiting for an answer.

"It's a village, I'm assuming there are girls." he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, but Lieutenant, there are girls," Donny waved his hand lightly, then grinned. "Then there are Girls." he said and Louise rolled her eyes as she lit up a cigarette that Hugo had offered her a moment before.

"Aldo stop teasing him, he wants to know if there's a chance of him getting fucked or not." Louise said as she exhaled her cigarette smoke.

"Pretty much." Donny nodded.

"I'm guessing yes." Aldo nodded and the guys cheered.

"You guys are gonna get goneria." Louise laughed.

"Oh come on Louie," Donny pulled her on his lap as she walked by him. "You know you want some too." he wrapped his arms around her waist making her roll her eyes.

"You're not my type Donny." she said boredly.

"And what's your type?" he asked resting his chin on her shoulder. It was then she realized she had almost everyone's attention.

"You guys really wanna know my type?" she asked with a small scoff. "Alright. I like 'em older. They've had more time to Mature," she looked at Donny with a smirk before she took another drag of her cigarette. "I like men that don't mind a girl who isn't the perfect little cook, or who prefer slacks to skirts. Men who know how to treat a girl, and by treat a girl I don't mean they say pretty things when trying to get the girl to sleep with them and then act completely monogamous because they believe that's what the girl wants." she scoffed lightly and Aldo realized she was talking about someone in particular. "I like men who..." she paused and looked at the guys. "I like men who like a girl who knows a thing or two about guns." she smirked. "A guy who can handle his drink and who can not puke at the first sign of blood, or in our cases, scalps." she laughed making the guys laugh, her serious moment was over. She stood up and Donny knelt down in front of her.

"Babe, will you marry me?" he asked and she laughed patting him of them head.

"No." she smiled and he snapped his fingers pretending to be sad as she looked at Aldo with a light smile. "So, when do we leave? I don't know if these guys can handle waiting much longer."


	16. Chapter 16

Hey Guys, I hope you like the update, and you'll have to thank my little sister for this one, she asked me if she could watch Inglourious Basterds, and after a moments consideration, I thought 'Aw, what the hell?' and let her watch it. In her words: "It's the most amazing fuckin' movie in the world" So, my fourteen year old sister is finally almost caught up with her Quentin Tartantino film education. So, to Liv, and the rest of you, I proudly present chapter 16!

Oh, and someone mentioned I should put a disclaimer up, so, Disclaimer: I do not own Inglourious Basterds. That right goes to Quentin Tarantino.

P.S. Please Review!

* * *

They got to the village the next afternoon, parking the truck right outside of the town square they got out and started to stretch before a gunshot rang through the air. "I thought you said there were no soldiers here!" Donny shouted at Aldo as everyone grabbed a gun.

"There shouldn't be!" he shouted back ducking behind a tree.

"Well obviously he didn't get the memo!" Louise snapped as she looked around the truck. The person shouted in German and she scowled as she tried to see where he was. Sakowitz took a shot making the person shoot again, that's when Louise saw him. He was in the bell tower of the church and he was aiming at someone. She followed him aim with her eyes and realized he was aiming right at Aldo, who was telling Utivitch he was going to get closer to try to get a better shot. She didn't have a moment to think as panic and adrenaline stuck her.

The moment Aldo stepped out from behind the tree she dropped her gun and ran towards him as the sniper fired. Louise used all of her body strength as she shoved Aldo out of the way. The adrenaline made the bullet digging and ripping through the skin in her hip feel like nothing as she smashed to the ground. "What the fuck're you doing?" Aldo shouted at her as he grabbed her under the arms and pulled her out of the way from another shot.

"Saving Your Ass!" she shouted back at him, putting her hand over the wound three of the guys- Donny, Utivitch and Hirshberg ran forward to the church.

"Get 'er in the truck!" Aldo shouted at Hugo and Omar who had run over. Hugo picked her up quickly making her wince, the pain was starting to hit her. Omar opened the tuck and Hugo laid her down on his jacket in the back as Kagan got into the driver's seat. The guys who hadn't stormed the church got into the truck as the truck started to move.

"Where's Aldo?" she gasped as she tried to get up.

"He'll meet us there." Hugo said trying to keep her level. The truck kept going for a little ways, Hugo holding a shirt to the wound on her hip. When they did stop Louise's eyes were closed and she was shaking. Hugo lifted her making her cry out in pain as he moved her leg lightly. He looked down at her apologetically before he brought her out of the truck and carried her into the house.

"What the fuck is this?" a girl with curly blonde hair asked as Louise's breathing increased, she tried to block the pain but she let out another small scream as a wave of it hit her making her nauseous.

"She was shot!" Omar said as she looked worried and annoyed.

"Bring her downstairs." she said with a nod before running upstairs. Omar opened a door in the kitchen and Hugo carried her downstairs laying her on a metal table. She could hear voices shouting from upstairs.

"Aldo my father said you boys could stay here for a few nights, he didn't say anything about some bitch who's stupid enough to get shot!" Ruth- the young girl with curly blonde hair- shouted at Aldo.

"That Bitch Down There is Louise Sebeystian, Do You Know Who Her Uncle Is?" Ruth nodded guiltily. "Not Only That, But She Just Got Shot Makin' Damn Sure I Didn't!" he shouted at her and she paled slightly.

"Where is she?" a dark haired man a little older then Aldo rushed down the stairs. There was a muffled scream from downstairs and Ruth's dad nodded before running downstairs followed by Aldo, then Ruth.

The adrenaline had worn off, and now the pain was practically suffocating her. She gave out another scream and then a loud sob as Hugo held her hand. Aldo and Ruth's dad walked over, Hugo moving and letting Aldo grab her hand. "I'm Dr. Grey." he said before injecting her with a sedative.


	17. Chapter 17

"Oh my god." Jessica breathed and Aldo nodded as he took a sip of his beer.

"Yep." he nodded and Dex sighed as he took a sip of his own beer.

"That's... Insane." she said with a light frown. "You could have died."

"That's right." he said with a nod. "War is pretty insane… If it wasn't for Louie, I'd be dead." he said and she nodded.

"So that's what you meant when you said it took almost losing her." she said and he nodded again. Dex stood up and walked out of the parlour making Jessica watch him walk out. "Is he-"

"It's hard for him." he said and she nodded as she stood up.

"I'll be right back." she said before walking to the back porch. She had never been in Aldo's back yard before but it was nice. There was a large oak tree in the grass and a covered porch with stairs leading down to the grass and yard in general. Dex was leaning on the railing looking out at the yard. She walked over and Dex looked at the younger girl as she moved closer and lightly laid her hand on his arm. "You okay?" she asked and he shrugged lightly before taking another sip of his beer.

"Why's it so easy for him to talk about it?" he asked and she looked at him curiously. "He would _Never_ talk about it when I was a kid."

"The war?" she asked and he nodded. "I think he wasn't ready before." she said and Dex sighed.

"You're probably right." he said and she smiled lightly before turning and walking to the backdoor. She gave Dex one last look before walking back into the parlour.

"You wanna continue?" Aldo asked and she looked at him.

"Do _You_?" he paused and then shook his head. "Let's take a break." she said and he nodded.

"Y'hungry?" he asked and she looked at the window it was getting close to dark. "Wanna stay for dinner?"

"Sure." she smiled.

"Run 'cross the street let yer folks know." he said as he got up and went to the kitchen. Jessica walked out of the house and ran across the street.

"Hey Jessie." her dad said when she walked into the house. "What's up kiddo?"

"Um, Mr. Raine asked me to stay for dinner, that okay?" she asked and he thought for a moment before he nodded.

"I don't see why not." he said. "Be good."

"I will daddy." she said and kissed his cheek before she walked back across the street and knocked on the door.

"Dad said to tell you knocking isn't really necessary anymore." Dex said as they walked to the kitchen.

"I'd feel a little weird just walking in." she said and smiled seeing Aldo scrubbing three potatoes in the sink. "Can I help?" she asked walking over to him.

"Sure thing, you finish these, I'll get started on the steaks." he said moving aside. "Dex tell you to just walk on in?" he asked and she nodded as she scrubbed the potatoes.

"I was just saying it would feel a little weird to do it." she said and Aldo nodded.

"Well it'd be better for me, wouldn't mean I'd have to get up with my leg." he said and she laughed.

"You lazy old man." she joked and he laughed. Dex walked over to the fridge and pulled out some vegetables and started to make a salad as Jessica dried off the potatoes and wrapped them in tin foil.

"Dad, we're out of dressing." Dex said looking in the fridge as Aldo put the steaks and potatoes into the oven and kicked it shut.

"So go get some." Aldo said simply and Dex rolled his eyes as he picked up his keys and wallet. "Take Jess here with you." he said gesturing to Jess. "Give me a bit of quiet before dinner." Aldo nudged Jess forward with his elbow as he walked past her.

"You want to come?" Dex asked Jess as Aldo settled himself in his chair and pulled his snuff box towards him.

"Sure." she said as she walked over to him.

"Dad we'll be back in a bit." Dex called to Aldo who waved at them as they walked out.


	18. Chapter 18

"So how'd you get stuck listenin' to dad all day?" Dex asked as he and Jess got into Aldo's truck.

"I told him I was learning about the war in school and he said he would tell me about the war." she said simply as they drove down the street.

"You a senior?" he asked.

"Yeah." she said. "What about you? Aldo says you're in college in California."

"Studyin' film." he said with a small smile.

"That's really cool." she said and he shrugged lightly.

"What about you, what do you wanna do?" he asked and she shrugged.

"Never really thought about it." she said honestly. They got to the store and Dex parked before he got out and walked around to the side of the truck as Jess tried to open the door.

"Hang on." he said as he grabbed the handle. "Okay on the count of three you shove got it?" he asked and she paused.

"I don't want to hit you." she said and he shook his head.

"I know, don't worry about it." he said and then counted to three. As she shoved a car pulled up on the other side of the truck and Luke Glosslin got out.

"Hey Jess," he said and she stopped pushing for a second to smile at him.

"Hey Luke." she smiled.

"Car trouble?"

"Something like that." she said before looking back at Dex who was shaking his head. "Dex I can just get out the other side." she said and he looked at her.

"Naw this door is pissin' me off now." he said and she rolled her eyes.

"Can we fix it later, your dad is waiting for us."

"Yeah, you're right." he said as he moved to the other door and opened it for her. She took his hand and hopped out of the truck before looking at Luke who was glaring at Dex.

"Do you guys know each other?" she asked and Dex looked over at Luke and scoffed lightly seeing the look he had been receiving.

"Something like that." Luke muttered before looking at Jess. "We're still on for Friday right?" he asked and she nodded. "See you then." he said briskly before giving Dex another cold look and then walking away. It was then Jessica realized her hand was still in Dex's. She quickly moved it and looked down before looking at him.

"Come on." she said and they walked inside. After they finished buying the salad dressing she and Dex went to the car and she got in on his side and slid across the bench seat to her spot.

"I'm sorry about before." he said and she looked at him.

"What was up with that?" she asked as he pulled out of the parking lot and started to drive them back to Aldo's.

"Our families just don't mix well." he said simply. "Bad blood, y'know?"

"Sure." she said and looked out the window. "What happened?"

"I don't wanna talk about it. Don't bring this up to Aldo either, kay?"

"Okay." she nodded and looked at him curiously. They got back to the house and after dinner Jessica helped Dex with the dishes while Aldo sat at the kitchen table.

"So do you guys have any big Thanksgivings plans?" Jess asked and Dex shrugged lightly.

"Same as every year; Sue and her husband'll come up. Her husband's parents'll come too." he said.

"I guess it's good you guys get along with her husband's parents. My mom's parents and my dad's parents don't get along at all." Jess said and Aldo chuckled lightly.

"You didn't tell her who Sue married did you?" Dex asked and the Lieutenant shook his head.

"Smithson Utivitch and his family are welcome in my house any day of the week." Aldo said with a grin and Jess stared at him for a second.

"She married Utivitch's son?" she asked and he nodded. "So he's going to be here?" Utivitch is going to be iHere/i?"

"You wanna meet him?" Aldo asked and she looked at him hopefully. "Come on over Thanksgiving day." he said with a small smile as he stood up. "Alright you two. I'm hittin' the sack." he walked over and clapped Dex on the shoulder who gave his dad a small nod and then lightly ruffled Jess' hair making her smile before he walked out of the kitchen.

"I should go." Jess said softly as she handed Dex the last dish.

"Well just wait a minute and I'll walk you home." he said and she smiled.

"I just live across the street."

"Might as well make sure you get there okay." he smiled. He finished drying the dish and then offered Jess his arm like in an old movie making her giggle lightly. She slipped her arm through his and walked through the house with him. He walked her out the front and across the street to her front gate.

"Well, thank you for walking me all the way home." she joked and he smiled lightly.

"Pretty far." he said looking at his dad's house. "See you tomorrow?"

"Probably." she said and gave him a small hug. "See ya."

"Night Jess." he said as she walked into the house. She shut the door and he turned and walked home.

"Have a good time?" her dad asked from the kitchen and she nodded to herself.

"Yeah dad." she answered.

"Good night sweetie."

"Night daddy." she said as she went upstairs to go to bed.


	19. Chapter 19

Hey all, so I know it's been forever and I'm horrible at updating regularly, I know, and I'm sorry. I got a new job (In the film industry, yaaay!) and it's eating away at all my time, but I've also had some pretty nasty writer's block. It's semi resolved now, and I'm back to writing (kind of) but, in the mean time, here's an update for you!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inglourious Basterds. I'm pretty sure Quentin Tarantino found some sort of secret file the US Government didn't want him to find about the war and made a movie about it... Or he just watched the Dirty Dozen, _Quel maledetto treno blindato_, and Dark of the Sun one too many times. Either way. He owns his Basterds, and I own Louise. But I'd be willing to sacrifice her to him if he wanted me to.

* * *

When Louise woke up she was laying in a bed. It was the first time in awhile she had slept in a bed so rather then jumping out of it like she would normally do she laid back and listened with her eyes closed. She could hear people outside, cars passing, chattering, and from downstairs laughing and talking. She started to sit up and then the pain hit her. She inhaled sharply and laid back down taking a handful of sheets in her hand she bit her left index finger and slowly counted to twenty about five times before there was a light knock on the door. The door opened and Dr. Grey walked in followed by a recently showered Aldo and the girl from the night before, Ruth. "See I checked on you right on time." Dr. Grey said as he lifted the shirt she was wearing to expose her hip. She wasn't even concerned with the fact that she had been changed during the night, all she was caring about was the pain in her hip. "Now I know it hurts, that's a pretty painful place to get shot." he said as he inspected the area closely.

"Is there anything you can do about that?" she asked and he looked up.

"Hm? Oh, of course." he pulled a needle out from his jacket breast pocket and injected her with a pain killer. "There you go." he said and nodded as he looked down at her. "You are one lucky girl." he said before he nodded again and walked away.

"How you feelin'?" Aldo asked walking over to the bed.

"Restless." she said as she sat up. The morphine was starting to kick in, she wanted to do something.

"Oh nonono." he said pushing her back onto the bed. She looked down at herself and realized she had been changed into a long sleeved button down shirt and was lacking pants. Luckily her underwear was still safely in place but she couldn't help but look at the Lieutenant curiously.

"Who-"

"Ruth." he answered quickly. She had left with her father- not wanting to be in the same room as Aldo for too long. "Louie you gotta stay off your feet, 'least fer today give the stitches some time to work fer yeh."

"But I-" he held up his hand and she rolled her eyes. "Can I-" he held his hand up again, this time with a small smirk, not caring how annoyed she was getting. She lightly hit him and he grinned.

"What?" he asked.

"I want to take a bath." she said simply and he raised an eyebrow but nodded.

"Bathroom's 'cross the hall." he said and she stood up again putting all of her weight on her other leg.

"Where are we?" she asked as she searched through her bag one of the boys had put in her room.

"Little village north of Paris." he said and she nodded as Aldo tried not to watch her. She finished grabbing some of her few articles of clothing and limped to the hallway and past Donny who whistled at her as she walked into the bathroom. Donny watched her walk into the bathroom and turned around finding himself face to face with Aldo who looked annoyed.

"Sorry Lieutenant." he said as he walked back towards the room he Wicki and Hugo were sharing.

"Aldo..." a muffled voice called from the bathroom.

"Yeah?" he walked over to the door.

"...I pulled one of my stitches." He rolled his eyes and called the doctor.

The day went by pretty quietly (for the most part), Aldo let the boys out during the night after they cleaned up and promised not to get into _Too_ much trouble. Louie was sitting in the kitchen at the table a bandage wrapped tightly around her hips and under constant watch of Ruth- or whoever was around. Her head was on the table and her arms sprawled out in front of her as she mumbled under her breath Donny ruffled her hair on the way out of the house making her flip him off wordlessly. She wasn't allowed to go out and she was ticked.


	20. Chapter 20

**_Wow, it's been quite awhile hasn't it? I found this file on my computer and I decided to Finally finish this story! Please remember the first 51 chapters of the story were written some years ago. Maybe I'll rewrite it one day, I'm not sure. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy._**

* * *

Louise was laying in the living room when Wicki and Hugo the first two back came in. She had previously been listening to Dr. Grey talk about medical school and explain what he did for her bullet wound, her attention was now on her two friends who were walking through the kitchen. "Brought you something." Wicki said stopping in the doorway. He held up a bottle of whiskey and she smiled.

"Thanks boys." she said. "Now get to bed you hardly look like you can stand." Hugo said something in German and Wicki chuckled.

"He said you should see Donny. Don't think he'll be making it back tonight." She nodded and shut her eyes as Dr. Grey continued to talk.

Louie's revenge for not being able to go out the night before came early (_Very Early_) the next morning, she was allowed to walk around (carefully) and help make breakfast which she did happily, while she happily hummed and chatted with Ruth- who was also enjoying this- and slamming things around. The hung over boys sitting at the table groaned every time she did it but it didn't stop her, Aldo walked downstairs to that in the morning and chuckled looking at the boys who were holding their heads. He hadn't gone out binge drinking the night before like some stupid college student so he was level headed, something that seemed to throw Louise off but didn't stop her from slamming things around with a smile on her face.

"What's fer breakfast?" Aldo asked a little louder then necessary, joining Louise's game, making her smile even more.

"Eggs, toast, oatmeal." she emphasized whenever she could making them wince.

"For the love of god Louise!" Donny said loudly before laying his head down on the table.

"So, doc, she good to go out today?" Aldo asked as Dr. Grey walked in. He walked over to Louise and lifted her shirt over her hip and moved the bandage, Aldo slammed the coffee pot down a little harder then necessary when he saw Donny trying really hard to look making Donny wince and lay his head back down.

"Well," Dr. Grey said looking at Louise's hopeful face and everyone else looking hopeful. "I'd really rather she'd stay in one more night and let it heal some more." Everyone groaned then, Louise, Aldo, and the seven basterds at the table (Wicki and Hugo had yet to join them, Hugo was at the moment in the shower and Wicki was still sleeping, having shared a room with Donny (who surprisingly did make it back)- who snored- he hadn't got much sleep during the night) each for their own reason which probably had to do with not wanting another hung over morning of a pissed off Louise slamming things around.

"What if I keep an eye on 'er, don't let 'er get too crazy and such?" Aldo asked after a moment of thought and all of the boys instantly looked at the doctor again.

"Well..."

"Hell Doc, I'll _Carry_ her so she doesn't walk on the stitches too much!" Donny said quickly, not looking forward to the next morning that was more then likely going to be happening at this rate.

"Oh, it's not the stitches I'm worried about." the doctor laughed lightly and everyone stared at him in shock. "It's the emotional stress of being shot I'm concerned about. This attitude of slamming things around is obviously because she's upset at herself for allowing herself to get shot. Louise, my dear, there was nothing you could have done." he said sympathetically as he laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Doc, are you saying I'm good to go out?" she asked and he nodded.

"Yes but-" everyone cheered as she threw her arms around his neck and then quickly- as quickly as she could without pulling another stitch- Louise went upstairs to find something to wear.

* * *

_**Hope you liked it, please don't forget to review!**_


	21. Chapter 21

Louise borrowed a dress from Ruth, she was supposed to wear something that didn't rub her stitches the wrong way, so the creme colored dress seemed perfect and was pretty much a perfect fit on her. Louise of course needed different shoes Ruth decided and soon it turned into Louise needed a few more dresses, so Ruth took it upon herself to bring Louise shopping, something she hadn't done in a very long time. As the two girls shopped Ruth brought up something she had been wondering about for awhile. "You know Aldo from somewhere before the war, right?"

"Yes." Louise said as she looked at shirts. Over the time she had been with the basterds any of the nazis she scalped, she- like the others- also took their money, jewelry, gold, medals, anything that could be sold quickly and quietly. When she was shot she had been wearing a shirt of Kagan's she had borrowed- surprisingly the two were close in sizes- so having the opportunity to actually _shop_ wasn't something she was going to give up on, even if it was mostly for stuff she'd never wear again, she tried to find articles of clothing she could use as a Basterd.

"Where?" Ruth asked.

"I work for the OSS." she explained. "My uncle is a general in the OSS and I used to do paperwork, secretarial work, that sort of thing. I met Aldo thirteen years ago." she nodded.

"And you took a bullet for him the other day?"

"Yes." Louise said like it was the most natural thing in the world. "He would have been shot, and he's no good to the mission dead."

"Neither are you."

"But I'm not nearly as important to the mission." Louise shook her head. "Besides... He'd do the same for me." When the two girls got back to the house most of the guys had gone out to do their own things but Aldo was still behind.

"What're you girls up to?" he asked as he looked up from the newspaper he was _Trying_ to read. Hard to do when you can't speak a lick of French, let alone read it.

"Being girls." Louise said simply as they went to the stairs.

"Louie, you wanna walk to the post office with me inna bit?" Aldo asked. "Gotta check in with yer uncle."

"Alright." she said before walking upstairs with Ruth. She went to the bedroom she had been staying in and laid her purchases out on the bed before choosing to stay in the creme colored dress and pull on a forest green sweater and a pair of low white heels. She sat down in front of the mirror- minding her stitches- and picked up the brush and brushed out her hair before she swept it back into a bun, a few loose strands hung in front of her face. As she finished up pinning her hair back there was a light knock on the door then it opened, Aldo leaned into the room and looked at her.

"Ready?" he asked and she nodded before she stood up and walked over with him. As the two of them walked down the french street together Aldo looked over at her noticing how the few loose strands of hair moved in the gentle breeze. "So," he said after a silent moment between the two of them. "Y'got any plans fer after the war?"

"Probably go back to working with my uncle at the OSS." she shrugged. "You?"

"Head back to the Smokies." he shrugged. "Haven't really thought much 'bout it."

"Well, knowing my uncle he'll probably want me to stick around here for awhile, make sure all of these Nazi fucks get found, that sort of thing." Louie said as she crossed her arms in thought.

"He'd ask you to stay here?" Aldo asked and she shrugged.

"If he thinks it's the right thing, I don't see why he wouldn't." she sighed. "It'd be nice to go home though." she smiled and Aldo nodded.

"Yeah, but to what?" he asked and she sighed with a small nod.  
_  
_"You've got a point." she said as they got into the town.


	22. Chapter 22

By the time Friday rolled around Jessica was extremely excited about her date with Luke Glosslin, as she walked through the halls of her school she found herself staring at the principal. "Ms. Bane," he said and she straightened her posture.

"Hey Mr. Franklin." she said slowly, she wasn't sure what she had done but it was obvious he wasn't happy about something.

"Follow me." he said and she followed him to his office.

"Mr. Franklin, I'm going to be late for Home Ec." Jessica said and he shut the door behind them.

"Jessica, your history teacher is very concerned, and so am I. You seem to think the war is a joke."

"_Which_ war, sir?" she asked and his face hardened.

"The last war." he said and she frowned.

"I don't know how Mrs. D'Franko could have gotten that idea." she said and he looked at the small stack of books that Jessica had put down on his desk, before he picked up the third book.

"_The Times of a Basterd_" he read the title and Jessica frowned lightly as he put the book down on his desk. "Jessica, I don't know where you got that book but this man, this Smithson Utivitch is making money off of something that never happened and the fact that you believe it happened is what concerns us. Do your parents know you read books like that?"

"My Parents let me read whatever I want." she said sharply and he sighed.

"Look, Jessica, I'm not trying to start something here I just want you to be aware that trash like this," he held up the book and she clenched her jaw together tightly. "Won't be tolerated on my campus." Jessica sat there silently for a moment looking down at her shoes as she thought about what she was about to do. "Now, I can understand if you didn't realize Jessica, and our library is full of good references for your report, but..." he trailed off as Jessica opened her book bag and pulled out her history text book. "Whats this?" he asked as she held it out to him.

"Sir, you said you wouldn't tolerate lies on your campus." she said innocently. "This book is full of them, and that book," she nodded to Utivitch's book. "That book is the only book with the truth."

"Jessica," he said sharply and looked surprised when she didn't flinch at his 'authoritarian voice'. "Jessica, do you want me to call your parents?" he demanded and she thought about it for a moment still holding the text book out before she simply let go of it. The book fell to the floor with a loud thump and Mr. Franklin stared down at it as Jessica looked at him. Mr. Franklin slowly looked up at Jessica before he shook his head.

"You're making a mistake Jessica." he said as he picked up the phone.

"No sir, you're making the mistake." she said and he frowned as he held the phone to his ear. "In the spring of 1941 Lt. Aldo Raine and eight other men were dropped into France with one agenda. Kill as many nazis as possible. After picking up two more soldiers on the way, the Basterds- as they were known to the German soldiers- made history. I know this is true because I'm lucky enough to live across the street from Lt. Raine and every day he tells me more and more about the war, things you couldn't imagine and things that the textbooks," she lightly kicked the textbook. "Have made the whole world blind to, and you may be fine being the blind man but my eyes are wide open." Mr. Franklin stared at Jessica as she sat there staring back at him, neither could believe what the other had said then the principal looked back down at the phone before he started dialing again.

"Jessica," she looked up to see her father standing there. "Let's go sweetheart." he said softly and she nodded as she stood up, then stopped as he tried to lead her down the hall.

"Utivitch's book." she said simply, and he nodded before he went into the office. When he returned he handed Jessica the book and she clutched it to her chest as she walked down the hall with her father to the car. Being suspended for the next week wasn't what was bothering her.


	23. Chapter 23

"Jessica," there was a knock on her door, Jessica however didn't make a move to get up and answer it. Instead she laid on her bed with her knees drawn to her chest where she was still clutching the book the principal had tried to confiscate. "Jessica, open the door."

"No."

"Jessie, we're not mad at you." her dad tried to reason through the door.

"Brian don't say that."

"Mary just let me handle this!"

"Oh I see how you've been handling her, she's never gotten into trouble in school before!"

"Well maybe if the school understood that there is mre to learn then what the text books teach then she wouldn't be getting into trouble!" As Jessica tried to block out the sounds of her parents fighting right outside her door the phone rang. She rolled over and answered it making it easier to block out her parents on the other side of the door.

"Hey Jessica, it's Luke, I heard about what happened today. You alright?"

"Yeah, Mr. Franklin's a jerk."

"No kidding. So, you aren't grounded are you?"

"No, why?"

"Well, I mean we had planned on going out, you didn't forget did you?"

"Oh god, I totally forgot!" Jessica put her hand to her forhead. "I'm so sorry Luke."

"It's fine, you probably want to stay home huh?"

"No, not really. If you still want to go out will you come pick me up?"

"Sure, I'll be there in an hour?"

"Sounds good, see you then." she said before hanging up. She got up and went to her closet and picked out a knee length white dress and a pair of white shoes. She changed quickly before she opened the door to look at both of her parents. "I'm going out with Luke Glosslin tonight." she said and her mother smiled happily while her father looked less then pleased.

"Oh sweetheart, that's so great! He's on the football team right?"

"Yeah mom he's on the football team." she said as she walked to the bathroom to wash her face and put on a little makeup. When she finished getting ready she walked downstairs where her dad pursed his lips.

"I don't like him." he said simply and Jessica sighed, making him stand up. "If he tries anything-"

"Daddy, its just a burger and a movie." she said and he nodded then kissed her on the top of her head.

"Here's your sweater sweetie!" her mom came in and handed Jessica a sweater.

"Thanks mom." she said and her mom nodded before a car pulled up outside.

"Oh, have fun sweetie!" she said and tried to follow Jessica outside, but Brian stopped her.

"Hey." Jessica smiled as she got into the car.

"Burger first then the movie?" he asked and she nodded.

"Sure." she said as he drove away from the house.

"So what happened today?" he asked and she told him the entire story of how Aldo had been telling her about the war for her history paper and how she had been given a copy of Utivitch's book and how the school had called it trash. As she bitterly explained it to him while they sat inside the diner he listened, though Jessica could see he really didn't care. She smiled and thanked the waiter as he handed them their food and then ate her food. Luke paid for the meal and the ticket to the movie, Jessica didn't get anything from consessions and found it hard to concentrate on the movie that Luke had bought the tickets for. By the time the night was over she had a pounding headache and wanted nothing more then to go home. "I was thinking we could take a drive to the lake, the clear air out there might help with your head, and to think y'know? We could take a walk." he lightly touched her hand and as Jessica looked at him, everything in her gut screamed no, she smiled lightly and nodded.

"Sounds like fun." she said and he started up the car.


	24. Chapter 24

When they got to the lake Jessica could see a bonfire in the distance, with people around it talking and laughing. "Just some adults having a party." Luke shrugged and she nodded as he parked the car. "So, good movie huh?" he asked and she thought about it.

"It was interesting." she shrugged. "I didn't really get that into it, I was thinking about the school." she sighed.

"Jessie, you've got to stop worrying about it." Luke smiled. "I'm sure they won't hold it on your permenant record." he leaned in and lightly kissed her cheek.

"It's just sick that the school would do something like that, they haven't even heard Aldo's side of the story." she said crossing her arms, making Luke sigh.

"Look, Jess, can we _Not_ talk about the Raine family?" he asked and she looked at him with a slight frown.

"What's up with your families anyways?"

"It's nothing." he shook his head. "Just something that happened a long time ago."

"What happened?"

"I'm not supposed to talk about it." he looked down for a moment and Jessica lightly put her hand on his arm. Luke looked up, mistaking the gesture as a sign and leaned in trapping Jessica in a long kiss. When she finally pulled away her face was bright red and she looked slightly mortified.

"Luke..." she thought for a moment.

"What's wrong Jessie?" he asked as he moved closer to her on the bench seat of the car. "I thought you wanted this." he tried to pull her into another kiss but she covered her mouth with her hand.

"I thought I did too." she said as she backed away from him. "But, um, now that we're here, I just really want to go home." she pleaded and he looked at her like she was some annoying child who was bugging him.

"Jess, we're already up here." he said and he grabbed her arms tightly and pulled her closer to him. As he kissed her hardly Jessica did the only thing she could think of, she bit his lip hardly making him jerk away from her blood pouring from the wound she had created.

"Don't bother taking me home!" she said as she got out of the car and slammed the door.

"Jessica!" he shouted after her as he got out of the car. "Jessica, get back in the damn car!" he ran after her as she ran towards the bonfire hoping she could find someone there to give her a ride home. "Jessica!" she gasped as he grabbed her arm tightly and swung her around. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Away from you!" she said as she tried to pull from his grip.

"Well I don't think so." he said. "Now let's go back to the car and we can talk about this."

"If you plan on doing all of the talking, I don't think so!" she shouted, people from the party with the bonfire had started to notice the two fighting teenagers and a few people had started to walk over.

"Everything okay over here?" a twenty something year old boy with long hair asked as they approached.

"Fine." Luke said pulling Jessica close. "We're fine, we're just talking."

"You okay sweetie?" a girl asked Jessica who had tears streaming down her face at this point.

"She's my girlfriend and she's fine!" Luke snapped at the girl who scowled at him.

"Why don't you let go of the girl kid?" another boy asked and Luke looked over at him.

"Why don't you mind your own buisness?" Jessica who was not used to being the center of attention was trying to look anywhere but at the faces of the older people who were now seeing her at her worst possible moment. She prayed one of them would do something about Luke but was scared that Luke would talk his way out of trouble with them. That is until-

"Let go of the girl Glosslin." Jessica looked up hearing a familar voice and saw Dex standing there.

"It's none of your buisness Raine." Luke said and Dex looked at Jess who looked at him pleadingly.

"I'm making it my buisness." he said as he took a step closer and extended his hand to Jessica. "Come on Jess." he said and she smiled softly as Luke let go of her arm, she ran over to Dex and threw her around him, he hugged her back and looked at Luke who was glaring daggers at the whole group of people before he turned and left.


	25. Chapter 25

"Didn't I tell you he's bad news?" Dex asked as he lead Jessica to the party he had been visiting with old friend at.

"I know." she sighed. "I just, I never saw that side of him 'till tonight."

"Of course you didn't. The Glosslin men are masters at hiding how truly sick and twisted they honestly are." he scowled and Jessica looked down. "Look at me Jess," she looked at him. "Did he hurt you?"

"He grabbed me pretty hard." she admitted and slipped off her sweater to show him where.

"You're gonna have some pretty bruises." he said as he lightly ran his thumb along her arms. "That fucker."

"Dex, Jesus." she muttered softly and he smiled.

"You can listen to Aldo talking about scalping nazis all afternoon and the moment I swear profously in front of you, you turn into a little kid again." he teased and she smiled. "Come on, have a beer." he said as she slipped her sweater back on.

"Okay." she sighed and nodded. "But don't tell my parents."

"Why the fuck would I tell them?" he asked as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and lead her over to the bonfire. "Guys, this is Jessica. She's a good kid." he nodded and people waved to her, the girl who had spoken up for her, Sadie she learned her name was, handed Jessica a beer and Dex opened it for her.

"So, that' your boyfriend huh?" Sadie asked as she wrinkled her nose.

"No, Luke isn't my boyfriend." Jessica shook her head.

"Good." Dex scoffed as he took another drink of his beer. "He's no good for you Jess. 'S not good for anyone." she nodded and looked down at her beer before taking a drink of it. By the time Dex drove her home the inital swelling of her arm had gone down some but it was starting to bruise, she was wearing Dex's jacket as it was freezing up at the lake and he was gentlemanly enough to let her have it when he saw her pulling her thin sweater around her tighter. "Let me walk you to the house." he said as he helped her out of his truck.

"Thanks." she said as they both walked together. "So, Dex..." she said slowly. "Do you think you could... Not tell Aldo about this?"

"I wasn't planning on telling him." he said and she nodded with a small sigh. "But it doesn't mean you shouldn't tell your parents." he continued and she shook her head.

"Not yet." she said. "I'll tell them after the party."

"Party?" he asked and she looked at him like he was crazy.

"Yeah, my parents fall dinner party. We invited your dad, and well, since you're here, the invitation of course extends to you." she said and he shook his head as they reached the gate.

"My dad doesn't tell me shit." he said with a small sigh. "I guess we'll see you tomorrow then."

"I guess so." she said then started to take off his jacket, but he held up his hand.

"Give it to me when I need it." he said and she frowned.

"And when might that be?" she asked and he shrugged.

"Who knows?" he asked with a shrug and a smile. She smiled lightly and then hugged him tightly burrying her face in his chest he wrapped his arms around her and just held her close, resting his head on the top of her's she could feel his rough unshaven face on her forehead making her smile.

"I'll see you tomorrow." she said softly and he nodded as they both pulled away, her walking towards her house and him walking scross the street to his. When she walked inside she turned to see her dad sitting in the living room reading Utivitch's book. He looked up and out the window as Jessica walked in then at the jacket she was wearing.

"Is that Dex Raine?" he asked nodding to the figure lightly illuminated under the street lamp.

"Yes." she said simply.

"What happened to Luke Glosslin?"

"I don't think I'll be seeing him again." she said as she thought about him, glad she had on Dex's jacket it covered the blood from when she had bit Luke earlier.

"Did he touch you?" he asked angrily and Jessica sighed.

"He's just... No good for me daddy." she said and he chuckled lightly as he stood up and walked over to her. He put his hand on her shoulder and kissed the top of her head.

"Of corse he isn't sweetheart. It's because he's a boy, and no boy will ever be good enough for my little girl." she smiled and he looked over the jacket again. "So, how did you end up with Dex Raine?" he asked and she rolled her eyes.

"Good night daddy." she said as she hugged him then ran upstairs, stopping about halfway up she turned and walked back down and he handed her Utivitch's book with a smile, kissed her forehead and let her go upstairs where she changed and went to bed.


	26. Chapter 26

"Louie," Louise looked up as Aldo walked out of the post office. "Ready?"

"Sure." she smiled and walked over to him. "So, how is uncle?" she asked casually as they walked.

"Fine." he said with a nod. "Sends his love. Thinks somethin' interestin' may be happening in Orleans within the next week."

"Hm, that sounds nice." she said as they walked together. "Of course I myself was thinking more of the festival next week."

"Festival?" he asked looking at her. She held up the newspaper she had been reading and pointed to an article on the third page. "Oh, I see because that makes so much sense to me." he said sarcastically making her fold the newspaper and smack him in the arm with it. "Hey," he laughed and she smiled.

"It's Hitler's birthday celebration. Every nazi infested country celebrates." she explained. "Sounds like fun."

"Sure, I bet the boys would like it too." he said with a grin and she nodded.

"I'm sure we'd all have some fun." she nodded as she linked her arm with his. As they walked together in a comftorble silence Aldo looked over at the petite brunette standing next to him as she stared ahead, apparently deep in thought before he decided to ask something he had been wondering about.

"When the boys were askin' 'bout your type you were talkin' 'bout someone. Who was it?"

"Remy." she sighed instantly.

"Who is he?"

"No one." she said simply as she slipped her arm away from his. "He was just the closest I ever got to getting married and he totally let me down."

"How so?" he pushed.

"He expected me to be the perfect little housewife, to give up my job with the OSS, to be a _Mother_." she shuttered at the thought. "A mother Aldo, can you imagine _me_ with kids?" she laughed loudly and he shook his head.

"I think you'd make a good mother Louie." he said and she scoffed lightly. "So what happened with Remy?"

"He found out that quitting my job and having kids immediatly weren't in my immediate plan and he ended everything. Excuse me if I'm not going to drop everything to fufill his dream of a perfect woman." she shook her head as she thought back to him. "Anyways, I don't want to talk about Remy, Remy's no good." she stuck out her tounge. Aldo laughed lightly and shook his head.

"Well I'm sorry it didn't work out for you Louie." he said and she shrugged.

"If it had worked out I wouldn't be here today." she said simply. "But anyways, let's change the subject, why are we still talking about this? What happened to that guy?"

"Which guy?" Aldo asked as they turned down the street the Doctor and Ruth lived on.

"The guy, the one in the bell tower." she said and pointed to her hip where her stitches were.

"Oh, _Him_." Aldo nodded understandingly. "Well, couppla us guys went up there, and had a little chat with him."

"Let me guess, Donny did all the talking?" she asked with a smile as they walked, their pace growing slower, neither of them really wanted to get back to the house that quickly.

"Actually _I_ did most of the talkin'." he said with a nod and lightly rubbed his scar.

"What did you say?" she asked, both of them knew neither was talking about talking.

"Well, I gave him a little speech on how his mama wouldn't be none to proud 'bout a man shooting a woman, and wasn't he taught better then that, then..." Aldo trailed off slightly and looked over at Louise who looked back at the Lieutenant. "I scalped him." he paused, then added one chilling word. "Alive." Aldo's eyes flickered over her face, as if he was looking for a reaction, when he didn't get one from her he nodded slightly and started to walk towards the house again, Louise quickened her step to catch up with him, walking side in side Aldo looked down as Louise slipped her hand into his and laced their fingers together, Aldo looked at her as she stared forward, a small smile playing across her lips.


	27. Chapter 27

The next week they were still in the village, each of them strategically placed at the main enterence to town, Louise had made herself at home in a very tall tree acting as a sniper when something caught her attention. It was Donny waving at her. "What?" she called to him in a loud whisper. He was in a building waiting like her.

"How much longer?" he asked and she rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry the nazis didn't exactly give me an exact time they'd be here to get slaughtered, maybe traffic is a little rough." she said sarcastically making Donny smile.

"You know you're bored Louie."

"Donny I swear to god if you don't-"

"Will you two shut up!?" someone shouted and they both grinned guiltily.

"Seriously, shut up Sebestyen, gonna give away our position." Donny said loud enough for her to hear. She rolled her eyes as she turned her attention back to the road. She could see a convoey. Every one of the Basterds tensed up knowing there was someone in the back of the truck that wasn't unlike the one they had 'borrowed' from a set of nazis they had killed early on. The cars leading the truck were for Omar and Utivitch, Donny was to take out the driver of the truck while Louie was to kill any straglers, the rest of the boys were there for crowd controll, any nazis that came out of nowhere, supporters who tried to stop them, that sort of thing and Aldo was going to see who was in the truck.

The first shots were fired when the first cars drove across the point, the car behind the truck's drivers were taken out by Sakowitz and Kagan. The driver of the truck ducked quickly, Donny shot the passenger as Louise shot the two germans that jumped from the back and tried to go to their friend's lead, the whole thing lasted maybe a few minutes at the most, as the Basterds came from their hiding places Hirshberg paused to help Louise down from the tree she was in as Aldo walked over to the driver's door of the truck and opened it. Wicki and Hugo dragged the driver out of his seat and forced him to his knees in front of Aldo who was grinning at how well everything was going.

"Louie, go check the cargo huh?" he asked and she nodded.

"No problem." she said as she walked around to the back of the truck.

"Suck up!" Donny joked and she grinned looking at him.

"Kiss it Donowitz!" she shouted smacking her backside before she turned her attention to the back of the truck as she pushed back the canvas hiding the cargo back, her face instantly dropped as she stared into the truck in horror.

"I don't understand." the driver said to Aldo with a frown.

"Wicki." Aldo looked at his translator who started to repeat the question in German but the driver held up his hand.

"I'm not driving soldiers." he said quickly as Louise walked over to Aldo quickly, the look of shock and horror still present on her face.

"We've got a little problem." she said softly to him.

"What?" he asked not looking at her.

"We. Have. A. Problem." she insisted and he sighed.

"What's the problem Louie?" he asked looking to her with a slight frown, and she looked at the driver who nodded knowingly.

"It would be best if you'd just follow me." she said as she grabbed Aldo's arm and lead him to the back of the truck where she had posted Utivitch to keep an eye on it. She pushed back the canvas and Aldo stared into the back of the truck silently, then looked to Louise who crossed her arms.

"What the fuck do we do with them?" she asked, inside of the truck was no more then ten members of the Hitler youth, all blonde haired blue eyed and staring back at them in pure horror.

"I... I dunno." Aldo shook his head. "They weren't supposed to be here." The curiousity of the situation finally had gotten the best of the rest of the men (with the exception of Hugo who knew exactly what was going on) and they all crowded around the back of the truck to see what had shaken up Louie so much. The ten children obviously between the ages of ten and fifteen that no one had any idea how to deal with.


	28. Chapter 28

"Talk to 'em." Donny said as the kids stared back at them. They had taken the kids from the back of the truck and had them now all sitting in the basement of the building that Dr. Grey used to practice out of. Louise looked at Donny who was standing by the door, his trusty bat leaning on the wall next to him. She looked over at Aldo who was sitting on a crate, his face was twisted deep in thought, she stood up and walked over to him and laid her hand on his shoulder making him look up at her quickly, obviously a little startled he hadn't noticed her walking over.

"What are you thinking?" she asked and he sighed.

"I dunno." he admitted softly looking up at her. He looked at the kids who were silently staring back at the Basterds. The driver of the truck was standing with the kids, he was also silent, he had all of his wepons taken and Kagen and Hirshberg were both keeping an eye on him. "We can't keep 'em here."

"We can't just turn them out on the streets." she protested.

"What do you want to do Louise?" he asked as he stood up.

"Are you asking me what I want to do or what I would do?" she asked and he chuckled lightly knowing what she meant.

"They aren't expected in Paris for another two days." Hugo said from where he was sitting on a different crate a little bit away from where Aldo and Louise were standing.

"So?" Louise asked.

"So we let 'em go." Aldo said suddenly.

"What?" Sakowitz asked in shock. "We can just _Let_ them go!"

"What are you saying Sakowitz?" Utivitch asked. "We keep 'em?"

"Fuck that." Zimmerman spoke up. "We already kept her," he nodded to Louise at that "Last thing we need is a bunch of kids."

"Hey, Louie saved the Lieutenant, leave her out of this." Omar spoke up and she smiled lightly at Omar.

"Oh please Omar, we were doing just fine without her, next think you know she'll be the one wanting to keep the kids." Zimmerman said.

"Hey, I don't want to keep 'em, I'm just sayin we're not going to just turn them out on the streets and let them give away our current position." Louise said to Zimmerman.

"We'll be out of here by the time they get to anyone, just get them out of here!" Zimmerman shouted back at Louise.

"And just how do you expect to do that Zimmerman?" she asked. "Just parade them down the street back to their truck and send them on their merry way?"

"At least I'm contributing something to this discussion Sebestyen." he growled.

"Contributing by condemning those _Children_ to _Death_!" she shouted.

"Will you lower your voices?" Wicki asked as he walked down the stairs. He had been keeping watch making sure no one would 'accidentaly' stumble upon them and the raised voices were making his job a little difficult.

"Sorry." Louise said and he nodded and looked at the situation, before nodding to Zimmerman.

"I agree with Louise." he said simply and Zimmerman looked at the men in the basement.

"Is that how it is?" he asked and most of the guys nodded.

"We're gonna get 'em out of here." Aldo finally said. "But we're gonna have to wait 'till tonight."


	29. Chapter 29

The kids were asleep, at least the younger ones were, Louie was sure that some of the older ones were just faking. Louise sat next to the area on top of a crate. As she leaned against the wall Aldo walked over to her and leaned against the wall next to her. After a moment of silence she looked up at him and studied his face. "Are you pissed?" she asked and he looked down at her.

"Not at you." he said and she sighed.

"Who-" she stopped speaking and he nodded. "Aldo don't beat yourself up." she sighed as she stood up and rested her head on his shoulder. "We all thought it would turn out differently."

"What if we had misfired, what if we had hit one of those kids?" he asked and she shook her head.

"But we didn't Aldo." she said sternly. "And when we get those kids out of here we'll be gone too, just like you said. Ruth is going to drive them into Orleans and we're going to head North. It'll all be over and done with."

"You aren't going to kill us?" a small voice asked and Louise almost jumped out of her skin before looking at the small girl who stared up at them with surprise in her eyes.

"You speak English?" Louise asked and she nodded.

"My mama taught me." she said with a heavy german accent. "My daddy speaks about you. He says you kill all Germans."

"No." Louise said softly. "Just the bad ones. What's your name?"

"Hannah." she said and Louise nodded softly.

"Well, Hannah, I promise no harm will come to you while I'm here, okay?" Hannah nodded and then looked down as tears started to roll down her young face.

"I want my mama." she said and Louise wrapped her arms around the young girl. It felt weird to Louise to embrace this child who was caught in the middle of the war, but Louise knew it was all she could do. Poor Hannah was caught in the middle of a war, on her parents side they were slaughtering innocent people and she was being raised to hate, and yet she was so young she didn't have the resources or even chance to make her own decisions.

By the time the basterds had arranged for Ruth to meet them with the children Hannah had fallen asleep again. Getting the children up was no easy task, and it only got a lot harder when they realized who they were with (and that the origional driver had been bound and gagged). Hannah quickly told them they would not be harmed while Louise was around making them all group around the bitch among basterds, much to the annoyance of Louise, but she bit her tounge and accepted it. As they made their way to the meeting point little Hannah translated what she could for Louise to the children until they had to be quiet. As they waited for the truck to come to the end of the alleyway they were in Louise took an oppertunity to kneel down in front of the kids who had (mostly) taken to her.

"Translate for me Hannah." she said and Hannah nodded happily as the children (and the Basterds) watched on curiously. "You children are growing up in the middle of a war. Innocent people are dying around you and you're going to grow up like it's normal. I want you kids to think about this, every time someone calls one of us evil for what we do, think about what they do." she said and Hannah translated. "Some of you older kids are old enough to read a newspaper. Try it sometime." Hannah quickly translated as the truck pulled up to the end of the alley. After shoving the bound driver into the front seat with Ruth they loaded the children into the back, as they put the children in the back each of them were required to take their arm bands off and hand them over to Utivitch. Hannah paused before turning back to Louise and throwing her arms around the hesitant woman's waist. "Your mama wants you home Hannah." Louise said softly and Hannah nodded before letting go and getting into the truck. Donny tied down the canvas cover and then hit the back of the truck and Ruth started to drive forward. Aldo walked over to Louise and laid a hand on her shoulder as they drove away before Louise pulled away from his touch. "We should leave." she said as she picked up her backpack. "There'll be nazis swarming this fuckin place by morning." all of the boys looked to Aldo who nodded and sighed as he picked up his own pack.

"Let's go boys." he said as he slung it over his shoulder and looked at the woman walking towards Wicki and Hugo, she started to talk to them in broken German and they answered before Aldo cleared his throat. "Alright boys, to the truck." he said as they walked to the truck. By dawn they had found a good place to camp in the french countryside.


	30. Chapter 30

It was nearly a week since 'the incident' as they had been calling it, before Aldo and Louise were alone again. It was late, Louise didn't even know Aldo was still up to be honest, and as she sat staring into the charred remains of what was once a fire she pulled her thinning jacket around her tighter before she heard a slight movement. Grabbing the only thing close enough to grab (which happened to be Donny's bat) she looked around before realizing it was coming from right in front of her. She sighed and looked over the Basterds, trying to figure out which of them was talking in his sleep. Donny had a problem with that but usually it was something not worth repeating, Hugo would sometimes shoot out of a dead sleep covered in a cold sweat and Louise would pretent not to notice to save the silent member of the basterds the trouble of talking about it (though she vowed she would bring it up one of these nights... Preferably over a bottle of whisky), but tonight it was Utivitch. She stood up and walked over to where the young man was sleeping and looked down at him, his face twisted in either fear or pain she decided he was having a nightmare. Louise knelt down and lightly placed her hand on his chest and shook him, not hard, just enough to wake him from his sleep. "You were having a nightmare." she whispered and he nodded rolling over and burrying his face in his backpack.

"Thanks mom." he said in his not quite awake haze. Louise blinked in surprise before she stood up and brushed her knees off. She straightened up to see Aldo sitting against a tree, the light made by the dying embers lightly illuminated his features along with the full moon in the sky lighting up the clearing they had been camping in for the past few days. He nodded to her and she walked over to him and sat down next to him. Aldo lifted his arm as she sat down allowing her to lean into him, he lowered his arm over her shoulders and held her close, her resting her head on his shoulder he lightly rested his cheek against the top of her head.

"You've been good for them Louie." he said and she smiled lightly unseen to him, but in a way he knew she was smiling.

"So have you." she said and he chuckled lightly making her smile wider as she looked up at him. "You never told me how you got this." she said as she lightly ran her fingertips down his exposed scar.

"Rope burn." he said as he rubbed it then took her hand. "It's not a pretty story."

"Like any of what we've been doing here is pretty." she said and he smiled.

"It's not a story I like to tell." he said after a moment and she nodded before resting her head back against his shoulder.

"Where do we go from here?" she asked and he sighed.

"Well, I'm thinkin' bout hitting a recruting office a little east of here. Buncha kraut bastards recrutin french kids right outa school." he said and Louise noticed that the french winter was getting ready to settle in when she realized she could see his breath when he spoke.

"What are we going to do for the winter?" she asked. "We'll die in the cold."

"Well, your uncle mentioned you have some connections around here..."

"Yeah.." she said slowly. "I'm just not too sure if they would be open to letting us stay there." she thought for a moment as Aldo looked down at her.

"What kinda connections are these?" he asked and she grinned lightly.

"Okay, but no blabbing to Donny before I've had a chance to talk to them..."

"Okay." he nodded.

"I met this chick, Irma, right when I first came to France and she had this problem with this German officer who wouldn't leave her alone. So, I took care of him. What I didn't realize at the time is, Irma is a Madame." she explained and a moment later a look of realization crossed Aldo's face.

"You never-"

"God Aldo." she hit his chest lightly. "What kind of girl do you think I am?"

"Not the kind of girl I remember." he said and she scowled lightly as she started to pull away from him.

"Louie," he pulled her back. "It's a good thing. Talk to your friend, do what you gotta do." he nodded and she nodded before resting her head against his shoulder again.

"If we fall asleep like this Donny will have a field day." she said as she felt her eyelids growing heavy.

"Let 'em." he mumbled as he rested his cheek against the top of her head again. And like that in the middle of the french forest the two basterds fell asleep.


	31. Chapter 31

The night after her 'incident' with Luke Glosslin was the dinner party. Those among the invited were the Walkers, (Mr. Mrs. and their daughter who was in Jessica's class, Gabrielle), the Neilson's (Mr. and Mrs. and _their_ daughter Barbara, and the Raine's (Aldo and Dex). As The Neilsons and Walkers mingled among eachother, the women in the kitchen, and the men in the living room Jess made her way between the two groups, avoiding the two girls in her class like the plauge. Needless to say these girls weren't exactly friendly with Jessica. "Brian, when do we eat?" Mr. Neilson (AKA Jim) asked, causing Mr. Walker (AKA Clay) to chime in with

"Yeah it smells like your wife's been cooking up a storm."

"Oh, she sure has. Mary's been at it straight since noon." Brian chuckled.

_'They had no idea.'_ Jessica thought as she went and sat on the stairs. She had made the mistake of walking into the kitchen on her way to the Raine's house and was ambushed and drafted in helping in the kitchen.

"So, when do we eat?" Jim asked.

"As soon as out last guest gets here." Brian said with a smile.

"Last guest?" Clay asked and Brian nodded.

"My daughter invited over some neighbors."

"Which ones?"

"The Raines." Brian answered as he took a sip of his beer. "Jess has been learning about the war from Mr. Raine for a little while now."

"You think that's wise?" Clay asked dropping his voice.

"What's that?"

"Letting your daughter run around with... _Them_."

"I trust Mr. Raine."

"Well I heard after his wife... Well, I heard he kinda lost it."

"I heard both his kids moved out because they couldn't stand being under the same roof as him, if you ask me, they did right." Jim piped up, unknown to them Jessica was still sitting on the stairs, her hands clenched in fists so tight her nails were practically cutting into her palms. At that moment the doorbell rang and she stood up to answer it, stepping out in front of the three grown men she looked over Jim and Clay with hatred in her eyes before looking at her father.

"My guest is here." she said before walking to the door and opening it with a smile.

"Hey there Jess." Aldo said as he stepped inside and gave her a fatherly kiss on the top of her head. "Sorry we're late but _Someone_ over here couldn't leave the house until he was wearing the right clothes." he looked at Dex who instantly turned a light shade of pink.

"Don't listen to him, he's old and senile." Dex said loud enough for Aldo to hear making Jessica laugh as Dex gave her a quick hug. "What's wrong?" Dex asked softly and she shook her head.

"I don't wanna talk about it." she said and he frowned.

"Is it Glosslin? Do you need me to-"

"Dex, chill." she said with a smile as she pushed her hair behind her ear. "I'm just... I'm glad you guys are here." He nodded, but she could see in his face he knew something was up. "Come on," she said taking his hand. "I'll introduce you." she lead him over to her father and her father's '_friends_' where Aldo had struck up a conversation with her dad. "Daddy, this is Dex, Aldo's son. Dex, this is my dad, Mr. Walker, and Mr. Neilson."

"Call Me Jim, this is Clay." Mr. Walker smiled.

"Nice to meet you." Dex said politely.

"You too son." Brian said with a smile.

"Jessica, maybe now that everyone's here you should go tell your mother so we can get this dinner party started." Mr. Walker didn't try to hide the fact that he was speaking down to her not only because she was younger then him but because she was a woman as well, using the tone he used when speaking to either his wife or daughter.

"I'll help you." Dex said quickly and Mr. Walker chuckled lightly.

"Son, we do our work, let the women do their's." he said clapping Dex on the shoulder.

"If it's all the same to you, _Jim_, I'll go with her." Dex said laying his hand on Jessica's shoulder before leading her away from the group of men.


	32. Chapter 32

Dinner started with a French Onion soup, followed by sweet and sour pork chops with steamed veggies on the side, as everyone ate Jessica (who had been placed between Gabrielle and Dex) tried to ignore Mr. Walker who was telling a very long story about something he had done when he was in high school. "Bored?" she jumped lightly, not realizing Dex had leaned over to whisper to her. She nodded and he cleared his throat, looking at Aldo who leaned over to the two.

"I'll cover your escape." he said softly and Jessica smiled.

"I can't go, it's my parent's party." she whispered back.

"Live a little huh?" Aldo whispered and she smiled lightly.

"You have a back door?" Dex asked and she nodded.

"Through the kitchen."

"Meet you there." he said before standing up. "I'll be right back." he said to the adults who had looked away from Mr. Walker, they nodded and he slipped out of the dining room before Jessica leaned over to Gabrielle who had heard the entire exchange between Jess, Aldo and Dex.

"I'll write your book report if you knock your glass of water on me in a minute." Jess whispered, making Gabrielle nod, language arts had never been her strong point. A few minutes later Gabrielle knocked her water over. "Jesus!" Jess shouted at the cold water hit her lap, she jumped up and away from the table and her mom sighed as she brushed off her skirt. "Sorry ma."

"Go in the kitchen and clean yourself up, you'll be fine." she said and Jess nodded. Jess walked into the kitchen and looked around as the door closed behind her.

"Dex?" she whispered thinking he had gone back on their plan she shrugged and walked into the kitchen a little further before Dex ran out from behind the door and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. She jumped and gave a small squeal making him laugh. "You jerk!" she whispered and he laughed again.

"Come on, I got your jacket, let's go." he said taking her hand, he handed her the jacket he had given her at the lake, she noticed he had his on, she slipped on the one he handed her and he took her hand again before they walked out the back door and shut it silently. "We're Free!" he said loudly and she laughed as she sushed him.

"Be quiet, they might still hear you!" she laughed as they ran through her back yard to the gate and slipped out around the side of the house. "Where do you want to go?" she asked with a grin as they got over to his car.

"I don't know." he shook his head with a wide grin.

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't know." he shrugged, still smiling.

"You're ridiculous, you know that?" she asked and he nodded as he held open his car door for her.

"Get in, I know where to go." he said and she shrugged before slipping into the car.

"Where are we?" Jess asked as they pulled up outside of what looked like a club.

"It's a cool place." he said as he parked and got out of the car. He walked around to her side of the car and opened the door, she looked at the club hesitantly and he held out his hand. "Trust me?" he asked and she smiled and placed her hand in his. They walked into the club and checked their jackets before Dex found them a table. The inside of the club was warm and dark and there was a jazz band playing loud jazz on stage. "Wanna beer?" he asked and she nodded. "Be right back." he walked over to the bar and she looked around, the people here were the types of people her mother hated. She looked back up as Dex returned to the table with two beers and handed her one. "Wanna dance?" he asked after she took a sip. She smiled and looked down at her drink before she nodded, a light blush appearing across her cheeks as she took his hand.


	33. Chapter 33

After a few loud fast songs the jazz band played a few slow songs. Jessica blushed lightly as Dex pulled her closer to him, the two of them dancing together she suddenly realized why being with Luke hadn't felt right, she smiled into his chest lightly, Dex smiled before the song ended and the band took a break. They returned to their table and picked up their drinks. "Where's a girl like you learn to dance like that?" he asked teasing her lightly.

"Where's a guy like _you_ learn to dance like that?" she asked and he grinned.

"I go to a lot of jazz bars in L.A."

"What's it like there?" she asked and he shrugged lightly as he took a sip of his beer.

"Always sunny." he smiled and she grinned. "Doesn't snow there."

"Nice." she said and he shrugged. "Where do you live?"

"I live right near my college." he said. "In Santa Monica."

"Is it nice there?"

"I love it. I'm close to the beach."

"I've never been to the beach before." she admitted as she took a sip of her beer.

"You'd love it." he smiled lightly and she sighed.

"When are you going back?"

"Few days after Thanksgivings." he said and she frowned.

"I thought you were staying 'till the New Year?"

"That was the original plan," he nodded. "But my roommate wrote me a letter, I had this class that was being cancled for the holidays but my professor and his wife worked out whatever it was they needed to work out so I've got a few weeks of classes I can't miss between Thanksgivings and Christmas."

"That sucks." she said softly and he smiled as he reached over and pushed her hair behind her ear.

"I'll be back by Christmas." he said and she looked up at him hopefully.

"Promise?" she asked and he smiled before he leaned down and softly kissed her. Jess instantly kissed him back, setting her beer down on the table she put one of her hands on his shoulder, the other she ran through the back of his hair lightly, smiling through the kiss Dex pulled her a little closer as he wrapped his arm around her waist. When the two finally broke apart he rested his forhead against her's, she was smiling and looked up at him as he took her hand. She was about to say something when someone walked up behind Dex and slapped him on the shoulder. Dex spun around and grinned at the man standing there holding a trumpet.

"Tom!" he said as he gave the man a hug.

"Dex, how long you in town?" he asked, speaking in a deep gravely voice.

"Till just after Thanksgivings." Dex said with a nod.

"Huh. Pointless holiday." the man shook his head. "You know in Russia they don't celebrate."

"Well, this isn't Russia my friend." Dex said, before looking at Jess. "Tom, this is Jess. Jess, Tom. I've known Tom since I was a kid." he said and Tom looked over the girl before nodding to Dex.

"I've got to get back onstage." Tom said as he nodded to Jess.

"I'll see you soon." Dex said to Tom who chuckled as he walked back to the stage. After another hour or two the club was starting to slow down, almost everyone minus all the heavy drinkers had left, Jess and Dex were sitting at the bar with Tom the trumpet player as one of the drunks slurred on about his problems. "We should go." Dex said to Jess as he looked at his watch.

"Already?" she asked and he nodded as he stood up, she got up and waved to Tom who was listening to the drunk tell his story. When they pulled up outside Aldo's house Dex walked Jess to her door and stood there for a minute with her.

"Think you'll be in trouble?" he asked and she sighed.

"Probably." she shrugged and he looked slightly worried. "Don't worry." she said as she put her hand on his arm.

"I didn't want to get you in trouble." he said and she rolled her eyes.

"I could have said no." she said and he smiled lightly. After another quick kiss she turned to the door and opened it softly slipping in she waved to Dex who walked down the stairs and across the street.

"I hope it was worth it." Jess' dad said as she walked in, and she turned to him.

"It was." she said with a smile as she thought about her night.


	34. Chapter 34

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Louie?... Louie? Hey, Louie?"

"_For the Love Of Judah, What Donny?!_"

"Are we there yet?" the dark eyed basterd (though to Louise it was more Bast_a_rd) grinned leaning forward to ask Louise softly.

"Donowitz, if you ask me if we're there yet one more time, I won't tell you where we're going." she said with a small smile.

"So, you know where we're going?" Wicki asked and Louise smiled.

"Of course I know, I set it up." she said asshe sat back on the bench seat.

"So where are we going?" Kagan asked and she smiled softly.

"You'll see." she said as she shut her eyes.

"Where the hell are we?" Hirschberg asked as they got out of the van. It was late and the Basterds were tired and irratable.

"Where are you going?" Sakowitz asked as Louise walked into a dark red painted building with a green door. She paused as he asked and looked back at him like he was stupid.

"In." she said pointing at the door. She walked in a bit further then paused and looked back at them. "Coming?" she asked and they followed quickly. The front room looked like the loby to a hotel, a very sin filled hotel to those who knew what it really was.

"Louise!" the pretty blonde girl at the front looked up the moment the door opened. As Louise walked in with the rest of the Basterds the girl stopped smiling momentarily, before looking to Louie.

"Don't worry, they're with me, is Irma here?" Louise asked waving her hand at the guys.

"Of course, she 'as been waiting for you."

"Has she really?" Louise asked. "Well here I am, take me to her." she smiled and the young girl nodded as she walked around the counter and quickly kissed Louise on each cheek then took her by the hand.

"Your friends stay here."

"Sorry Katie, my friends go where I go." Louise said looking at the boys who were staring at the two (other then Aldo who knew exactly where they were) in confusion.

"What the fuck are we doing here?" Donny whined and Louise smiled as Katie took her by the hand and lead her upstairs.

"Just wait here boys." she said as they walked upstairs. A few minutes laster Louise walked back down with an older woman with dark hair that was starting to slowly grey. She was older then the boys, she had at least ten years on Aldo but she looked good for her age.

"Lieutenant..." Utivitch said slowly as they looked around the loby, the girl, Katie had come back down and was writing something in a book as a man walked down the stairs.

"Yeah Utivitch?" he asked as his hand dipped into his pocket. It returned holding the snuff box the boys had all gotten used to seeing. As he took a hit to each nostril the boys looked around, some of the older ones in growing understanding of where they were, and the younger ones in confusion having never actually been to a... House of little moral value before.

"Are we in a..."

"Boys," Louise said as she walked down the stairs with the woman, Irma. "This is Irma, and this is Irma's house. She's been kind enough to let us stay here, but there are some rules she'd like to point out first."

"Oui, this is a buisness, you will leave through the basement exit and come through the basement exit, I cannot have people thinking thinks about my home."

"That it?" Aldo asked as the older woman light up a cigarette.

"Oui." she said and started to turn to the drawing room door. "Oh, and unless you are paying you are staying in the basement." Irma said making Louise laugh softly as the older woman walked over to the drawing room door and opened it, letting the boys into her house.


	35. Chapter 35

"Why have I never been here before?" Donny asked as they walked through the parlour, gambling, girls dancing, music being played loudly, it was like a big party.

"Irma is a strong believer in being inconspicious." Louise said as Irma wrapped her arm around Louise's shoulders. She lead the basterds to the basement where it wasn't like a normal basement, rather a large room well light with beds set up.

"What is this?" Kagan asked slightly unsure.

"It's where they hide people who don't want to be found, or throw the drunks." Louise said as she threw her bag on one of the beds.

"Louise, your room is upstairs of course." Irma said and Louise smiled then shook her head.

"Thanks Irma, but where the guys go, I go." she said and Irma patted her cheek lightly. "There a bathroom down here?"

"Of course." she said and pointed to a room that the boys instantly rushed over to making Louise smile. "You come upstairs when you're ready." Irma said and Louise nodded.

"Thank you." she said and the older woman walked upstairs.

"Looks like your friend really came through." Aldo said and Louise nodded with a small shrug.

"I had no doubts." Louise said and looked at him. "We'll be safe here for a few days. Maybe a few weeks if needed."

"None of the girls..."

"The girls won't say shit unless." she said as she picked through her bag and finally pulled out a skirt and clean looking shirt.

"Good." Aldo said with a small smile and she smiled before going and walking to the stairs. "Where ya goin'?"

"I'm not waiting for them." she said pointing to the boys who were waiting to use the indoor plumbing.

A few hours later all of the boys were upstairs gambling, drinking and having a good time for the first time in awhile. Louise was sitting with three other girls, a dark haired girl by the name of Nicole, a redhead by the name of Gwen, and a black girl by the name of Carrie. The three girls were having a drink and talking together when a customer walked over and took Carrie by the hand, leading her off the three girls sat together in a moment of silence before Louise cleared her throat. "Do you get a lot of soldiers?" she asked and Nicole sighed.

"Yes." she said softly making the female basterd sigh.

"We can't turn down buisness even through they are nazis." Gwen said softly. "They are paying customers. They keep us in buisness."

"I've almost been killed by nazis a few times." Louise said and took another sip of her drink.

"I heard about that." Nicole said. "One time if was to save your Lieutenant." she smiled at Louise slyly and Louise rolled her eyes.

"Any of the boys would have done the same thing."

"But would you have done the same thing for any of the boys?" Gwen asked. As she was about to say something a man carrying a large glass of wine stumbled past them, tripping on the edge of the carpet his wine ended up all over Louise.

"Oh, Oscar." Gwen stood up and lead the man away as Nicole took Louise by the arm and lead her upstairs to the bathroom.

"Give me your clothes, they'll go with the morning wash." Nicole said and Louise stripped down in the bathroom before handing her clothes through the door to Nicole. "I'll be back with something for you in a moment." Nicole said before walking away. Louise sighed as she went to lock the door only to find no lock. Rolling her eyes she went to the sink and splashed some water on her face, as she wiped it off with a towel the door opened, Louise looked up surprised to see Aldo standing there who looked equally surprised, not expecting to see anyone in the bathroom, let alone Louise standing there in her underwear. After an awkward moment of silence he seemed to realize.

"Sorry!" he said quickly and she nodded.

"It's alright." she said and he backed out of the room shutting the door she rolled her eyes as she looked in the mirror. The conversation she had been having downstairs with the girls running through her mind. As she ran her thumb along the thin almost fully healed scar on her hip she looked back at the door. Her mind made up she only hoped it was the right thing. She crossed the bathroom and opened the door sticking her head out to call him back if he was walking down the hall she was surprised to see him standing next to the door.

"Louie." he said and she looked at him before she straightened up, not caring that she was only in her underwear, at that point it didn't matter, the only thing that mattered was how he would react.

"Aldo..." It was the first time she couldn't think of anything to say. Asking Aldo later he would never admit he was surprised by Louise pressing her lips to his but at the moment he was. It didn't tke long for him to react through, wrapping his arms around her bare waist he lifted her up making her wrap her legs around his hips, he carried her to the nearest bedroom and opened the door before kicking it closed behind them.


	36. Chapter 36

Waking up in a room with deep purple painted walls made Louise smile softly, streaching lightly she started to push her blankets back when the person lying next to her stirred lightly. Laying back down Louise looked to her left at the sleepng form of Aldo Raine. As she reached over to him there was a knock on the door before it opened. Leia, one of the girls was standing there leaning in the doorway. "Good tipper?" she whispered with a wink making Louise roll her eyes as she sat up, pulling the sheet over her bust she rubbed her eyes.

"What time is it?"

"Half past ten." she said. "Come on, I have something for you."

"Let me get dressed." Louise said then groaned softly remembering what had happened last night resulting in... Well, liaison with her Lieutenant and friend.

"'Eare." Leia walked in the room and picked up Louise's undergarments and Aldo's shirt. "We are the only ones up, surely that must be enough, oui?"

"Oui." Louise nodded as Lei turned around, Louise dressed quickly before following Leia out of the room not wanting to wake Aldo up over whatever it was Leia wanted.

"My customer last night, he was in the army."

"Oh?" suddenly Louise wished she had woken Aldo up. "What happened?"

"He says there's something going on in Paris."

"Paris?" Louise asked and Leia nodded. Louise went to say something else but a door opened and a lost looking man wandered out of the room.

"Erm, the door?" he asked in french making Louise and Leia both point to the stairs. He nodded and left quickly making Louise roll her eyes and Leia look him over as he left.

"What was I saying?"

"Paris." Louise pushed.

"Mm, oui, Paris. There is a meeting, it will be all of the high members of the German army."

"What is it?"

"He did not say. Oh, but he mentioned a name."

"Who?"

"Fredrick Zoller." she nodded.

"Are you sure?"

"Oui." she nodded and Louise nodded in thought.

"Thank you Leia." she said in thought.

"Can you use it?"

"Yes. Oh, and if you could tell any of the onther girls who sleep with members of the german army to give me whatever information they might get from these boys, that would be great as well." she smiled and Leia rolled her eyes as she went downstairs.

"Cook will be up, making breakfast for whoever is awake."

"Well, I garuntee the boys will be up in a bit then." Louise said as she went back to the room she and Aldo had been sharing. As she shut the door Aldo woke up and looked around frantically for a second before he seemed to realize where he was. Laying back on the bed he sighed then looked at Louise as she twirled a dark lock of hair around one of her thin bony fingers deep in thought she started picking at her lower lip.

"What's up?" he asked and she looked at him. She walked over to the bed relaying the information Leia had just given her, his eyes shone with the excitement of the new information.

"Are you getting in touch with my uncle today?"

"Yep." he said as he started to sit up, he was halfway up before he seemed to loose all will and fall back onto the bed with a groan.

"Come on." Louise said pulling his hand.

"In a minute." he said as he pulled her down to lay with him. "Commere." he wrapped his arms around her and sighed.

"Aldo." she said with a small chuckle. She rested her forhead on his chest and sighed. "Come on old man, let's go, rest or not, there's still a war going on."

"Yes there is." he said sitting up.

"And we are the ones who will end it." she grinned. He smiled and nodded before she jumped out of bed and threw his clothes at him. "Let's go."

"The shirt?" he asked and she looked back at him.

"Don't you think I'd look a bit odd walking down the halls with nothing but my underwear on?"

"I wouldn't complain." he shrugged and she rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure the boys wouldn't either, but do you really think it'd be a good idea to walk around them in nothing but my underwear?"

"... Good point." he said with a nod. She nodded and then turned to the door to see Leia standing outside of the door with a simple white dress.

"Thank you." she said before shutting the door. She took off Aldo's shirt and threw it to him before slipping the dress on. As Aldo pulled on his shirt she slipped out of the room and downstairs where everyone was having breakfast, walking by that she went to the basement where she found some clothes sutable to wear into town to deliver a telegram.


	37. Chapter 37

"What do you mean England?" Louise asked as Aldo paced around the basement, the boys were scoping out the town while trying to look inconspicious.

"I mean what I said Louise." he said and she crossed her arms. "Your uncle asked us to come to England, 'parently the germans are plannin an attack."

"And they want us?" He nodded and she sighed before looking up. "Okay, when do we go?"

"..." there was something he wasn't telling her, she could tell right away.

"Aldo, what's going on?" she asked and he sighed, before gesturing to the bed. "I'd rather stand."

"Fine." he said before he handed her the telegram. "Your uncle's instructions say-"

"That I'm to be _left here_?!" she demanded in shock and anger. "With Stiglitz apparently."

"Well, he isn't technically in the OSS..." he stopped and looked at Louise who looked absolutely crestfallen. "Louie, hey." he walked over and put his hand on her arm. "We're only gonna be gone for a few weeks."

"Oh, only a few weeks?" she asked sarcastically. "And what are Stiglitz and I supposed to do while you're gone?"

"Well, I've been thinkin' 'bout that," he said slowly. "I'm thinkin' that you two try and figure out what this meetin' is in Paris everyone's gettin' all excited about."

"So you want us to go to Paris?" she asked and he nodded.

"Well, we're gonna go with ya, make sure everythin's alright, getcha settled in the safe house, then we're gonna head out." he said. Louise stood there for a minute, her jaw twitching in anger before she scoffed and sat down on one of the beds. He sighed and went to sit next to her but she jumped up and started to pace around.

"How could he do this to me?!" she demanded.

"Come on." he said softly. "You think you're up to taking your part of the job?"

"Of course." she turned to him with a light frown. "You think I'd just not do it because I'm a little pissed? When do we go?" he smiled and kissed her forhead making her smile lightly.

"We leave tomorrow." he said and she nodded.

The next morning Louise was showered and ready to go last. She was trying to prolong getting to Paris and in turn prolong the boys deserting her. As they left they said their goodbyes to Irma and the girls, each of the girls telling Louise to come back whenever she wanted. She got into the back of the truck and took her backpack off as Aldo started to drive. Wicki, who was closest to the back pulled down the canvas cover, it was getting colder lately. As Louise rubbed her hands together Hugo took a seat next to her.

"You're staying?" he asked in German.

"No choice." she responded making the other boys look at them, they didn't like it when the German speaking members of the basterds chose to speak German around them. "Sorry." she said to the boys who looked back at whatever it was they were doing, Donny was cleaning his bat, Zimmerman was reading something, Louise looked at her hands and sighed.

"God damn it's gonna be good to be around people who speak English again." Donny said with a grin after about an hour of driving. Wicki and Hugo looked at him quickly along with Omar and Hirschberg. "What? Don't tell me you guys wanna stay around all these freakin' French people." he said with a chuckle. Omar sighed and shot Louise a look making her roll her eyes.

"Donny, the boys are trying to silently tell you I'm staying here." she said as she picked at her fingernails.

"What? Why the hell are you stayin'?" he asked and she looked at him.

"Do you honestly think I'd stay if I had a choice?" she asked and he grew silent.

"Well shit Louie." he said softly and she nodded before he moved over and knelt in front of her. "Well, I promise I won't even _think_ about sleeping with another woman 'till I'm back in your arms. Then I'll think about sleeping with plenty of other women." she laughed and ruffled his hair. As soon as she pulled her hand from his hair the truck stopped suddenly making Donny fall over and sending a few of the other boys flying. Hugo had thrown his arm out and caught Louise before she fell the moment he felt the truck jerk making her smile.

"Thanks Hugo." she said and he nodded.

"What the hell?!" Donny asked banging on the wall of the truck between the cab and the back.

"Boys," Aldo said appearing at the back. "And Louie, who's up for some huntin'?" The moment he said that the boys (And Louie) grabbed their guns and knives before jumping out of the back of the truck. "There's a group of krauts somewhere 'round here and I know there's another in that orchird up there." Aldo said as he showed them the map. "Let's go." the boys nodded and then started into the forest. It wasn't long before they found the boys they were looking for.

"Leave me some for questioning!" Aldo shouted over the sound of gunfire, it wasn't long before there was only three left.


	38. Chapter 38

As Louise dug her knife through the scalp of one particularly young nazi she took a moment to stop and look at him. He looked about nineteen. God, she could remember being nineteen. She shuttered at the memories from nineteen and then started up with her slicing again. "Alright Louie?" Aldo asked as she tied the scalp to her belt. "How many?"

"Four." she said before her eyes settled on another nazi a few feet away none of the boys bothered to claim yet. "Make it five." she said as she walked over to said nazi. As they scalped them they took their money, their jewlery, any valubles, their information papers, took their shoes and socks off. When she finished she noticed the boys surrounding the survivors, Hirschberg was standing behind them, the three had their hands behind their heads, fingers laced together, the way a cop would make someone put their hands together to make sure the criminal wasn't going to pull a knife. As Louise walked over to where Aldo was sitting on a rock she noticed a lack of someone. She chuckled lightly as she thought about the interogation about to happen, Aldo smiled looking back at her as he finished marking names and scalps in his little book.

"Hey Hirschberg, send that kraut sarge over." he said as he took his bag off and looked at the 'Kraut sarge' who was now walking over to them. Louise could tell her was eyeing the basterds, trying to see if there was any escape as well as thinking about what to do, he had been to plenty of interogations but this was the first time _He_ was being interogated. As his gaze rested on Louise his eyes widened slightly realizing she was a woman. She smirked as her hand rested on the hilt of her knife, his eyes travled to her waist where the scalps of his dead men hung like they did on the other basterds belts, her hands were bloody.

" Rachtman." the man saluted Aldo who returned the salute lazily.

"Lt. Aldo Raine, pleased to meet cha." he said looking Werner over. "You know what sit down means Werner?"

"Yes."

"Then sit down." the nazi squated down looking at Aldo expectingly. "Hows your English Werner? Cause if need be, we gotta a couple fellas can translate." he gestured to Wicki. "Wicki there, a Austrian Jew, got the fuck outta Munich, while the gettin was good. Became American, got drafted, come back to give y'all a whatfer." he then pointed to Hugo. "Another one over there, you might be familiar with, Stiglitz. Heard of 'em?"

"Everyone in the German army's heard of Hugo Stiglitz." Werner said making the basterds laugh.

"Can I assume you know who we are?" Aldo asked.

"You're Aldo the Apache." Werner said looking quickly at Louise who took the oppertunity to sit down next to Aldo, well, on the ground next to him, he was sitting on that rock. Some of the boys laughed and cheered when Werner agknoweleged Aldo making her smile lightly and pat Aldo's knee. He smiled and looked back at the man he was interogating.

"Well Werner, if you heard of us, you probably heard, we ain't in the prisoner takin business. We in the killin Nazi business. And cousin, business is boomin." Aldo said making them laugh in agreement. "No that leaves two ways we can play this out. Either kill you, or let you go. Wether or not you're gonna leave this ditch alive depends entirely on you. Up the road a peice there's an orchard. 'sides you, we know there's another kraut patrol fuckin around here somewhere. Now if that patrol were to have any crackshots, that orchard, would be a goddamn snipers delight." he tapped Louise's shoulder making her pull the map from her pocket and unfold it, as she laid it out in front of them.

"We know we're here." she pointed to their location on the map, her finger leaving a slight blood stain on the map. "So don't try and bullshit us Werner." she said to him. He looked her over before looking back at Aldo.

"Now if you ever wanna eat a sauerkraut sandwich again, you gotta show me on this here map, where they are, you gotta tell me how many they are, and you gotta tell me, what kinda artillery they carrying with 'em?" Aldo said looking at Werner.

"You can't expect me to divulge information that would put German lives in danger?" Werner asked.

"Well, now, Werner that's where your wrong. Because that's exactly what I expect." Aldo said and leaned closer to the German prisioner. "I need to know about Germans hidin in trees. And you need to tell me. And you need to tell me, right now. Now take your finger, and point out on this map, where this partys bein held, how manys comin, and what they brought to play with?" Werner stared at Aldo for a moment before raising his right hand, then slowly lowering it to his chest.

"I respectfully refuse, sir." he said making the boys laugh. From the tunnel behing Louise and aldo Louise heard the echoing of a '_THUD THUD THUD_'.

"Y'hear that? That's Sgt. Donny Donowitz. You might know him better by his nick name... The Bear Jew." Louise smiled at the way he dragged out the nick name. "Now if y'heard of aldo the apache you gotta heard about the Bear Jew."

"I heard of the Bear Jew." Werner nodded.

"Wha'dja hear?" Aldo asked.

"He beats German soldiers with a club."

"Bashes their brains in with a baseball bat what he does. Now Werner I'm gonna ask you one last god-damn time and if you still respectfully refuse, I'm callin' the Bear Jew over and he's gonna take that big bat of his and he's gonna beat your ass to death with it. Now take your wennersitnitzel lickin finger, and point out on this map what I want to know." Aldo said lowly to the man.

"...Fuck you! And your Jew Dogs!" Werner made up his mind to die for his country. So be it. Rather then being outraged at being called Jew Dogs, the boys laughed.

"Actually Werner, we're all tickled ya said that. Frankly, watchin Donny beat Nazi's,to death, is the closest we ever get to goin to the movies." Aldo picked up the map as to not get blood on it and started folding it. "Donny!"

"Yeah?" the young man's voice called from in the tunnel.

"We got us a German here who wants to die for his country! Oblige him!" Donny stretched out the walk down the tunnel as much a possable, hitting his bat along the wall to strike fear in the hearts of the germans before them, Louise looked at the crying young man Hirschberg was standing behind, Donny's methods were obviously working.

"You get this for killin' Jews?" Donny asked as he hit the metal on Werner's chest with his bat.

"Bravery." he answers and Donny took a deep breath before he placed the edge of the bat on the side of Werner's temple. Moving the bat away he took another deep breath before he brought the bat swinging down on the head of the nazi in front of him.


	39. Chapter 39

The younger nazi- well, the one that lived, the other one tried to run causing Hischberg to shoot him in the back of the head- the younger nazi proved to be much more help then Werner and when Aldo finished carving a little reminder into his head they let him go then worked on the task of taking down twelve nazis with a machine gun. It was no hard task, one that added two more scalps to her belt, then she threw them away when she was sick of them, which only took about five minutes. After raiding their supplies Aldo lead his soldiers back to the truck and everyone got in. It was close to nightfall and they still had about an hour and a half before they got to Paris. When they did get there it was dark which made it easier to ditch the truck and walk the mile to the safe house. Knocking on the door Aldo looked at his bloodied up men and smiled lightly before looking at Louise. She had come a long way from when they had first picked her up. The door finally opened and a tall thin man with dark brown hair and dark brown facial hair stood there, his green eyes swept over the boys before landing on Louise then back on Aldo again. He smiled and Aldo smiled before he hugged him lightly.

"Aldo, come in." he said and let them all in. "how long are you staying?" he asked as the boys took off jackets and backpacks. "Boys, you remember where everything is." he said as the guys nodded and ran off to find places to sleep, bathrooms, the other members of the house, etc.

"Jus' for tonight, our general's got us shippin out in the mornin'."

"Oui, I know."

"Jacques?" Aldo asked and the man nodded before Aldo turned to the exhausted Louise. "Louie, this is..."

"Pierre." the man rolled his eyes and Aldo grinned lightly.

"Hard to tell you guys apart." he mumbled and Pierre shrugged before going to the kitchen where a man identical to him was standing drinking a glass of wine.

"And my brother, Albert." he gestured to the man drinking the wine. He had longish brown hair that was curly but brushed back and was slightly unshaven, unlike Pierre who had a beard, they had the same bright blue eyes though Louise noticed.

"Chéri de vin?" he offered her a glass of wine in French.

"Aucun merci" she replied shaking her head. He shrugged as if to say more for me, then turned to Aldo.

"Will she be staying with you Aldo?" Albert asked.

"Yep." Aldo said as he slung his arm around Louie's shoulders.

"But not unless _She_ stops being reffered to like she wasn't here." Louise said as she moved away from Aldo a sweet smile on her face.

"Sorry Louie." he said and she nodded before looking at albert and Pierre.

"Boys, normally I would shake each of your hands, however," she held her hands up to reveal dried nazi blood. The two frenchmen took a moment to really look her over to see she was covered in dirt, grime, sweat and blood.

"Vous ne lui avez pas même offert la salle de bains?" a voice asked from the doorway.

"Not yet Jacques." Pierre said turning to the doorway to the basement where a third image of the two men in the kitchen was.

"Louie, these're the triplets." Aldo said as he put his hand on her shoulder. "Now, let's see if I remember this right, Jacques," the one who had just entered the room. "Jacques is a master of interupting radio transmissions, sends nazis to wrong places, fucks up their entire game." he said and Jacques bowed to Louise who smiled. "Right, Pierre, he's never met a truck he couldn't tip."

"Oh really?" Louise asked. "What's your specialty?"

"Anything in a crate darling." he said with a smile. She laughed lightly and shook her head before looking at Aldo.

"Continue." she said and he nodded before turning to Albert.

"And Al here, Al is our weapons man. You need it, he'll build it." Aldo said gesturing to Albert who took Louise's hand and kissed it over the dirt and blood.

"Charming." she said with a small smile. "You have some interesting friends Aldo." she said looking at him. He smiled and nodded.

"I could say the same for you an the girls." he said simply.

"Right, well, how 'bout that shower?" Louise asked looking at the triplets.

"I'll show her." Pierre said before offering her his arm. She rolled her eyes and slipped her arm through his.

"Don't go getin' too comftorble!" Aldo called. "It's only for a few weeks." After her shower she got dressed in a clean pair of pants and buttondown shirt before walking downstairs where they were having a light dinner. As she sat down next to Aldo she was handed a glass of wine which she picked up and sipped before nodding her thanks to Albert who had handed it to her. Dinner went by quicker then Louie would have liked, it seemed every time she snuck a peek at the clock it had changed by a lot rather then minutes, the time was flying by like it often does when you don't want it to. Each minute that ticked by was a minute closer she was to them leaving. "Jesus." Aldo said looking at the clock. "Boys, find somewhere to sleep because it's goign to be a short night, we gotta be up and out of here in a few hours." he said before standing up and streaching lightly.

"Aldo, you remember where you stayed last time, oui?" Jacques asked and Aldo nodded.

"Yeah I remember." he said before offering his hand to Louise.

"Night boys." she said and Donny grinned widely.

"I _Knew_ it!" he shouted pointing to the two.

"If you know what's right for everyone, in front of my uncle, you didn't know it." she said simply before saying good night to their hosts and following Aldo up to the bedroom.


	40. Chapter 40

Sleep for the both of them was a restless affair, both Aldo and Louise would eventually drift into a light sleep before waking up an hour later to look at the clock. As they laid toghether Louise felt Aldo pull her closer to him, she opened her eyes and looked up at him and he sighed. "I'll miss you." she said softly and he smiled before kissing her lightly.

"I'll miss you too." he said and looked at the window before sighing. He sat up and ran his hand through his brown hair. He got out of the bed and grabbed some clothes before walking to the door. "Might as well use the shower before the boys get up." he said and left, leaving Louise laying in the bed alone. She grabbed his pillow and laid back down hugging it before she decided to get us as well. She dressed quickly and brushed her hair into a ponytail before walking downstairs.

"Morning boys." she said as she walked into the kitchen. Utivitch, Kagan, Wicki and Omar were sitting at the table and looked pretty surprised when Louie walked in.

"Morning." they said back as she walked over to the counter and started to make some coffee.

"Um... Louie?" Utivitch asked after a moment. "Are you... Okay?"

"Fine." she said simply.

"Are you sure?" Omar asked and she sighed.

"Guys, I'm _Fine_. Why?"

"Because you're pouring coffee grounds into the toaster." Wicki said and she looked down to see he was right.

"Oh." she muttered and Kagan stood up and walked over to the counter to clean up the mess she had made. "Sorry."

"It's fine." he said quickly. She stood there awkwardly for a moment before turning around to see aldo standing in the doorway.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked and she nodded before following him to an empty room. "Louise, what are your plans for after the war?" he asked and she sighed.

"What are your's?"

"This ain't about me." he said softly and she crossed her arms.

"I don't think I'm going to like where this is going." she said and he shook his head.

"Probably not." he said before he took one of her hands, he placed it behind his neck and she sighed as he leaned in and kissed her lightly. "Promise me somethin' Louise."

"What?" she asked.

"Back in Maynardville, my folks left me a house when they died..." he said softly and she nodded slowly. "If I don't come back-"

"Aldo, don't say that!" she said as she pulled away from him.

"I ain't finished yet." he said as he pulled her closer, lowering his voice again she looked at him in shock. "Louise, if I don't come back, I want you to go there. I know your ma drives you crazy and your uncle is pretty much on your hit list..." he said and she looked down for a moment.

"And when you _do_ come back?" she asked.

"If I come back and we make it through all this," he said and she looked him in the eye. "Will you come back to Tennessee with me?" he asked and she looked down with a sigh or surprise. "Don- Don't worry about answerin' now," he said as she opened her mouth to say something. "Just think about it." She walked back into the kitchen, stunned as Aldo nodded to Hugo who had just walked in, Hugo followed the Lieutenant. While they were gone the rest of the boys showed up looking ready to go. After a quick breakfast of a cup of coffee the boys met out back by the new truck that Pierre managed to get for the boys. Aldo walked out followed by the triplets, Hugo and Louise. They said their goodbyes, Louise hugging all of the boys tightly and giving them a quick kiss on the cheek, all except for Donny who pouted and then turned his face when she went to kiss him on the cheek making her kiss him on the lips quickly. Donny laughed as Louise punched his shoulder then gave him another hug.

"You bring him back here Donowitz." she said softly and he nodded as he looked at Aldo. "Bring 'em all back."

"I'll do my best Louie." he said as he ruffled her hair. Louise walked over to Aldo and they stood there momentarily before she hugged him tightly and burried her face in his neck.

"Yes." she whispered as he pulled away. He nodded understanding what she said before rolling his eyes he leaned down and gave her a long kiss not caring that they were in front of the boys. When the kiss was over he gave her one last look before he got into the truck and drove away. And like that, they were gone.


	41. Chapter 41

When Jess heard the doorbell Thanksgivings day she felt her insides chill over. Mom's side of the family. She shuttered internally as she looked herself over again in the mirror. Her dress looked perfect, as did her hair and makeup as far as she could tell. She slipped her shoes on and was fixing her ear rings when there was a knock on the door. "Jessie, family's here." her dad said and she nodded. "Look, get through this and I'll look the other when when you go running." he said and she gasped before throwing her arms around him.

"Thank you daddy!" she said and he smiled kissing the top of her head.

"Now come on darlin, do you really think I'd let you miss meetin' another Basterd?" he asked and she had a sudden new felt respect for her father.

"You believe it?" she asked and he shrugged slightly.

"Don't tell your mama." he said before offering her his arm. She giggled and slipped her arm through his before they went downstairs together. "Found her honey." he said to his wife as he laid his hand on Jess' shoulder.

"Jessica, honey, you look so pretty." she said looking at the dress and the small matching sweater. "Oh, but take the sweater off sweetie." the sweater sleeves went to her elbows and more importantly it covered the ugly bruises that Luke had left her with.

"It's chilly mom." Jessica lied quickly and her mom placed her hand to her daughter's forehead. "Mom, the window above the sink is open." she said rolling her eyes. As Jessica greeted her family and listened to their critisizms or told them the normal school stuff she found her mind wandering to what was going on across the street. After dinner was served and everyone had eaten they went back to the living room where her cousin Shelby sat at the piano and started to play. Jessica obiediently sat on the couch and listened before looking at the clock then to her father. He looked at his watch and then sighed but nodded. "Thank you Daddy!" she said as she hugged him then said good night to her family, they'd be staying around for the next few days so she would still see them.

"Jessica, don't forget a coat!" her aunt Liz called as she ran to the door. Jessica paused and then ran upstairs and grabbed the coat Dex had given her and then ran back downstairs and out of the house. As she ran across the street, approaching the Raine's house she paused at the gate and quickly flattened her dress and then started to mess with her hair as she walked up to the house. She got to the porch and took another deep breath before she rang the doorbell.

"I got it!" she heard a familar male voice say before Dex opened the door. "What did I tell you about just coming in?" he asked and she rolled her eyes as she walked into the hall and he took her jacket off. "Wow." he said looking her dress over. She smiled and stood on her tip toes to give him a light peck on the lips.

"And I told you it would feel weird." she said as she pulled back from the kiss.

"Dex, where's dad keep the- Oh, hi, you must be Jessica!" Jessica smiled at a very pretty girl who looked a lot like the picture of Louise she had seen, but she had Aldo's eyes.

"Hi." Jessica smiled at Susie who was very pregnant. "I'm glad to meet you."

"You too, you are all the boys in this family will talk about, come on in, Dex, where's the salad bowl?"

"Sue, I don't know why you bother with the salad bowl, no one is going to eat the damn salad other then you and Holly." Dex said.

"Oh shut up Dex." she said and he rolled his eyes.

"Dex stop arguing with your sister." Jessica said rolling her eyes before looking at Sue. "It's in the cabinet over the refrigerator."

"_Thank you!_" she said before flicking Dex's ear as she walked by.

"Ow!" he said and she laughed sticking her tounge out at him. "You're lucky you're pregnant!" he shouted at her before turning to Jessica and smiling. "Come on, Dad's been asking for you." he said and lead her to the parlour where Aldo was sitting with two other men, a young man who looked a lot like the young Smithson Utivitch she had seen in the pictures but he also had a lot of his mother's characteristics she noticed as she looked at the older version of Smithson Utivitch sitting on a couch next to Aldo who was smiling widely.

"Jess, bout time you got here." he smiled as he stood up. "Wanna beer?"

"Sure." she said with a small smile as he hugged her and kissed her in a fatherly way on the top of her head.

"Right, Jess, this is Smithson Utivitch." he said gesturing to Utivitch.

"I've heard a lot about you." Utivitch said as he stood up and shook her hand.

"I've heard a lot about _You_ sir." she said and he chuckled before gesturing to his son.

"My son Andy." he said and Andy stood up and shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you."

"You too." he smiled.

"And my wife Holly." Utivitch said laying his hand on his wife's shoulder as she walked over to them.

"Hi there darlin." she said giving Jessica a hug. Dex came back into the living room and handed her a beer as everyone found somewhere to sit.

"So," Aldo said as he oulled the snuff box out of his pocket. "We all ready to go?"

"Give me five minutes to change dad!" Sue said from the kitchen.

"Go?" Jess asked and Dex nodded.

"It's tradition after Thanksgiving dinner we go visit the boys." he said softly as she took a sip. "You want to come with us?"

"You sure I won't be imposing?" she asked and he looked at Aldo and Utivitch who had been watching them both.

"Go get her a decent jacket." Aldo said and Dex left then returned with a woman's jacket, Jessica put them on and they all went outside, Sue coming out after them, she shut the door and looked at the situation.

"Okay, we've got seven people." Sue said and Aldo looked everyone over.

"Me, Utivitch and Jess in the truck, rest of ya in Dex's car." he said before gesturing Jess and Utivitch to the truck.


	42. Chapter 42

The first night away from the boys was the worst. Louise spent the night hugging the pillow Aldo had slept on the night before because it smelled like him. The next morning she got up to find herself the only one awake. She sighed and wandered around downstairs for awhile before making coffee. As she did she heard someone walk into the room. "So I've been thinking," she said as she poured her coffee. "Aldo says something is going on in Paris, he says we should try and figure out what the fuss is about so-" she turned to hand a cup of coffee to who she thought was Hugo but found to be Pierre. "Sorry." she said with a small smile. "I thought you were Hugo."

"It's fine." he said and she handed him the cup of coffee. "I'm not used to anyone being up this early." she shrugged with a small smile and he sipped the coffee.

"I couldn't sleep." she said softly. "I hope you don't mind me barging into the kitchen like this-"

"Please, while you're here this is your home as well." he said. "So," he went to a drawer full of papers. On further investigation Louise realized they were maps. He pulled one out and spread it across the counter and looked at her. She walked over as he pointed to where they were on the map. "We're here."

"Right." she nodded and he pulled out a better map of the city and picked up a pen and marked where they were.

"Aldo thinks something is going on in Paris, Oui?"

"Oui." she nodded and he nodded.

"Well, if anything comes through the radio or telegram, Jacques will know." he said waving his hand. "However for something more in the here? Is that the expression?"

"In the now." she said and he nodded.

"Right, for in the now information, we'll try here." he pointed to a streach of area in what was known as the 'lower end' of Paris.

"Why there?" she asked and he smirked looking at her.

"You are a pretty girl, and no man can resist bragging to a pretty girl in a dress over a few drinks."

"Who said anything about me wearing a dress?" she asked looking at him with a raised eyebrow and a small smirk.

"You have gone undercover, no?"

"Yes..." she said slowly and he nodded.

"Voilà." he said waving his hand at her.

"Do I get backup?"

"But of course."

"And a gun?"

"Now, what kind of lady carries a gun?"

"Honey, I thought ya'll read the papers." she said laying on the southern accent a little ticker then usual as she spoke in an almost taunting manner. "I'm not a _Lady_, I'm a basterd."

"But while the Basterds are away, the _Lady_ will play." he said as he tapped the tip of her nose. "Now, about that dress," he turned away from the stunned woman and walked to a door leading to the cellar. "Are you coming?" Louise had no choice, in her eyes, but to follow, and follow she did, as they walked downstairs into the musty basement she smelled something familar.

"Gunpowder?" she asked and he rolled his eyes.

"Oui, this is where Albert does most of his work." he said waving his hand. "He set fire to the living room one too many times and made it impossible to work without nazis poking their fat heads in our buisness." He stopped at a rack of clothes and looked at here. "Well, come here, let me look at you." Rolling her eyes Louise obeyed the order. "Turn around, pretend like you're a lady huh?"

"Look-"

"You're going undercover, you need to act the part, if you go in acting like you are now then no one will tell you shit!" he said and she siged growing frustrated. "Arms out." she obeyed. "And turn. Slowly." bitterly Louise obeyed the order. A moment later Pierre was holding up different dresses to her trying to decide.

"Can I say something?"

"No."

"But-"

"No!"

"Look I-"

"Quiet!" he shouted before throwing a dress at her. "Okay, let's go."

"Where?" she asked as he dragged her upstairs.

"Do you know what you look like?"

"What?" she asked not particularly interested in the answer.

"You look like you've been living in the woods and killing nazis with your bare hands for months." he said and she smirked. "It's not a compliment." he said simply and she frowned. "Looking the part is more then just putting on a nice dress." he said as he pulled on a jacket. "It's being the part."

"And how do you expect me to _Be_ the part?"

"With help." he said with a shrug like it should be obvious. "Now let's go, we're going to be late!" with that he took her hand again and practically dragged the woman out of the house. They say all's fair in love and war, well, if you had asked Louise right then, this certainly wasn't fair.


	43. Chapter 43

"Never let it be said that you can't work miracles." Pierre was saying to the pretty redhead who had just spent the past two hours cutting plucking and polishing the sore Louise Sebestyen.

"I thought you had a challenge for me." she said airily as she continued to brush out Louise's hair. "This was nothing, once you clean off all the grime and... Dirt, there's a prefectly presentable young woman underneath, wasn't there darling?" she looked at Louise who was glaring daggers into her captors. Aldo hadn't mentioned anything about torture. She felt like a prisoner of war. She'd rather be up against the _Entire_ Nazi army with only a six shot pistol and her hunting knife then go through what she had gone through again.

"You sound like my mother." she said simply, anyone who knew her knew that was the farthest thing from a compliment that Louise could deliver.

"And you sound like a four year old." Claire (Her captor for the past two hours) retorted. "But at least you look nice. Thanks to me." Louise stood up and looked herself over in the mirror. Her hair was nicer now, smoother and softer, she ran her fingers over her hair, careful not to disrupt the wet polish on her fingernails, red, Pierre said the color would suit her, and it did, it's wasn't scarlett red, or anything gaudy, it was a nice red, almost wine red. It looked nicer then the caked on blood she had been showing off hours before.

"Like I said," Pierre said as they walked back to the house, Louise was shivering, he had insisted she wore the dress. "Looking the part is only the first step, you have to act the part, make them want to tell you things, flirt."

"Jesus Christ, I'm not gonna fuck 'em." she said looking at him and he rolled his eyes.

"Of course you aren't. But they don't know that." he shrugged and she stopped and looked at him as he stopped, taking a step closer to him she didn't break eye contact as she drew in closer.

"So, basically," she said slowly and softly and she leaned in. "You want me to be irresistable to any man wearing a nazi uniform," she put her hands on his chest and he looked down at them then back at her. "Just to get the right information? Is that what you want Pierre?" she asked looking up at him through her long freshly mascarea coated eyelashes.

"It- Ahem" he had to pause and clear his throat, he hadn't mean for that to come out so high pitched. "It's what we all want." he said more controlled and she shrugged as she pulled away from him quickly and started towards the house again.

"Can you hurry the fuck up, I'm freezing my ass off in this dress." she said as she walked quickly. "Not a word Stiglitz." she said as she walked into the house. The ex-German soldier looked at her from over the rim of his coffee cup then set it down and took in her appearance. Her long slim legs seemed longer and slimmer due to the cut of the dress Pierre had picked out, never let it be said fashion wasn't one of his hidden talents, her hair, though a few inches shorter looked cleaner, and it looked like if he touched it it would be extremly soft, she was wearing makeup, something he had never seen on her before and her usual grime and dirt she supported like a real soldier was replaced with nail polish and some sort of scented lotion, from where he was sitting he couldn't tell what scent it was but it was something flowery.

"You look nice." he said simply and she glared. "What's the plan then?"

"Apparently we're going to the bars and clubs and trying to talk information out of stupid drunk nazi fucks." she said as she sat down with a huff.

"And this upsets you?" he asked and she shook her head.

"No, I'm just bitter." she said simply as he poured her a cup of coffee. "I mean I know I'm not technically a basterd as accoring to the american government, but still, being left behind? What the fuck?"

"I know how you feel." he said simply and she looked up at him with wide eyes.

"I'm so sorry-" he held up a hand and set down his coffee.

"If there's something I know it's that if there was any other way Aldo would have taken it." he said and she smiled softly and nodded before looking down at her own cup of coffee. "Now, we'll need a cover." he said and she smiled looking at him. "Is that what you're wearing?"

"I don't know, I think so." she sighed looking down at herself.

"You'll need a gun." he said as if thinking outloud making Louise smile.

"Thank god for you Hugo, I wouldn't be able to handle Pierre and all his '_you need to be a ladiee_' crap without another basterd around."

"Mm," he took the cigerette from between his lips and exhaled as he spoke. "You do need to act like a lady, but that shouldn't stop you from being a basterd." he shook his head and she smiled even wider if that was possible. The man was her saving grace. For now.


	44. Chapter 44

The ride in the truck was long, when the boys finally got to the American lines it was just getting dark and they were restless and ready to get the hell out of France. For now. "Lt. Aldo," one of the men who had been waiting for them said as Aldo got out of the truck. "You're late."

"Plane's still here ain't it?" he asked and the guy rolled his eyes. "Boys, on the plane." Aldo said and the boys ran to the plane.

"Your General will be waiting for you when you land." the man said and Aldo nodded.

"Alright, see you in a few weeks." he said before turning and going to the plane. The plane ride only took an hour, but to the boys, who were ainxous and excited about being somewhere _other_ then France for awhile, it felt like it took longer. The plane landed and Aldo and the boys got out streaching and grumbling to themselves, cargo planes weren't exactly the way to travel, though they had to admit it was better when they didn't have to parachute to ground.

"Aldo." a voice called their attention, General Harvey Wolfe walked over to them with General Northman.

"General, good to see ya." Aldo smiled at his general and friend. "Louie sends her love." _'That bastard! I can't believe he would expect me to just sit by while you guys get to go off honeymooning in fucking england, I swear to god if I live through the war he will never, I repeat NEVER hear the end of this from me!'_

"I'm sure she was just delightful." General Wolfe said and Aldo smirked. "Boys." he said looking at the Basterds. "There's a truck waiting to take you to the hotel. Please, go on ahead, the driver will explain the plans when you get there, Aldo and I have some business to discuss."

"Go on." Aldo nodded to his men who first looked to him, then went to the truck.

"Aldo," the general gestured to his car. Aldo walked over and the young driver opened the door letting the three men get in. The driver got in the car and started to drive as the General started to talk. About ten minutes later they got to the hotel and Aldo nodded.

"I understand sir." he said and they got out of the car.

"Was she pissed?" General Wolfe asked as they stepped into an elevator.

"Nah, not that bad." Aldo lied, then looked at General Wolfe who was staring at him skeptically. "Maybe a little."

"How's she doing?"

"She's alright." Aldo shrugged lightly. It was suddenly awkward. They stopped on the third floor to let Northman off before the doors closed again and they rode three more floors in silence.

"How long have you been sleeping together?" General Wolfe asked and Aldo paused, looking at him in shock as the General unlocked the door to a suite. "Come on." he said nodding to the room.

"Well, sir, I-"

"Cut the shit Aldo." General Wolfe said and Aldo raised his eyebrows. "We both know Louise's dad took off when she was young," Aldo nodded. "And since then, she's been like a daughter to me."

"With all due respect sir, I don't know many men who would send their daughters off to war, particularly alone."

"I have no problem admitting maybe I dodn't do the fatherly thing sending her off to Paris alone, but I did the right thing. She was raised a soldier. It's the only way I knew how to raise her. Ever since her first fight in grade school, it was one of the only things we could connect on." Harvey looked at Aldo. "I don't expect you to understand what I did and I don't plan on explaining myself to you. You're under my command Aldo, and she's under your's, apparently in more ways then one, all I'm saying is I think of Louise as a daughter and with that comes the threat we're all used to. If you hurt her, I'll make sure your next position isn't nearly as glamerous as this one, do I make myself clear?"

"Yessir." Aldo said softly and Harvey nodded, then turned to the table sitting next to him, where a large cardboard box was sitting.

"Now, I believe your housekeeper sent this over. Her letter to me said you asked for it?"

"Hard to get good clothes in France." Aldo said as he took the box from the general. "Um, where is-"

"Your room is through there." he pointed to a doorway in the hall of the suite. Aldo nodded then walked over to the door and walked through it. To be honest he had been expecting 'The Talk', just not the moment he stepped off the plane. As he cut open the box Millie, his housekeeper had sent he ran over the plans that he and the general had discussed in the car. They were just crazy enough to possibly work.


	45. Chapter 45

Jess had always _Seen_ the memorial in the middle of the park but she had never actually gone up and read the names of the people on it. "I know none of them were from here." Aldo said as he stood in front of the memorial, Utivitch standing next to him. "But Louie wanted them to be near. Always." he said and looked at Jess who looked back at him.

"It's beautiful." she said and for the first time in her life she could actually describe it as such. Before she had thought of it as something she would see every day. It was a fixed point, something that had always been there and something that would always be there. But it really was beautiful. Aldo smiled at her and she helped light candles around it. After spending almost an hour there they went back to the house.

"Tired kiddo?" Aldo asked as she laid her head on his shoulder.

"No." Jess mumbled and he chuckled as they pulled up outside the house. Aldo got out and Utivitch got out on the other side. Jess got out of the car as Dex walked over and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"Tired?" he chuckled and she scowled at him making Aldo laugh. "Come on, I'll walk you home." he said and she nodded.

"Night Aldo." she said as she hugged him.

"Night Jess." he said. "Comin' over tomorrow?"

"What's happening tomorrow?" she asked.

"Tell you more 'bout the basterds." she shrugged and she smiled.

"Need you even ask?" she asked and he nodded before everyone else walked into the house.

"Come on." Dex said. "You don't want to get a cold."

"Alright." Jess smiled as they walked across the street. "So when are you leaving?"

"Day after tomorrow." he sighed and she sighed.

"When are you coming back?"

"A few days before Christmas." he nodded. "Maybe sooner, I'm not sure, I'll let you know."

"Promise?" she asked and he smiled before he kissed her lightly on her forhead.

"I'm not gonna ditch you." he said with a grin.

"I know." she smiled and he looked her over.

"You know that was Louise's jacket." he said and she looked down at it in shock. "You look good in it."

"Do you want it back, I mean I-"

"No." he held up his hands. "She would have liked you."

"Dex, where... I mean... What happened to her?" she asked finally and he looked down momentarily before looking back at her.

"She died." he said softly.

"How?" she asked and he sighed.

"You know how there's a hugh chunk missing from that big oak tree at the end of Main Street?" he asked and she nodded. "Well, there was an accident." he said and she covered her mouth with her hand in shock. He nodded and licked his lips before continuing. "Ike Glosslin, Luke's dad was extremely drunk, mom was walking home from the pharmacy and..." he trailed off getting a distant look his eyes and Jess wrapped her arms around him quickly.

"That's the first time you've called her mom." she said looking up at him and he chuckled lightly as he looked down at her. "So that's the bad blood with you guys."

"Yeah." he said shortly. "He killed my mom, and all he got was probation." Dex was bitter. Jess was starting to feel that way herself. "And Ike, through it all, is still an alcoholic." he shrugged and she sighed.

"I'm sorry I brought it up." she said softly and he shook his head.

"Don't be sorry." he said. "You had to find out sometime. Better you found out from me rather then dad or Sue."

"True." she nodded and he noticed she was shivering lightly.

"Come here," he pulled her close and ran his hands over her arms trying to warm her up. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Of course." she smiled and he leaned in, locking her lips in a long kiss when they broke apart they were both a little pink in the face which could be attributed to the cold or the kiss, at that point neither were sure. Jess went inside and watched as Dex ran across the street before she cloed the door.

"Jess," she stopped with a sigh as she heard her dad call her from the living room. "Come in here honey." She walked into the living room and stopped seeing both of her parrents sitting there looking upset. "Sit down sweetheart."

"Did someone die?" she asked as she sat on a chair.

"No honey, nothing like that." her mom looked up and she looked between the two nervously.

"What's up then?" she asked.

"Hon, you know your mother and I have been having some problems lately..." her said said slowly and she nodded. "Well, we think you're old enough to know, after the holidays we're filing for a divorce." he said and she sat there in shock.

"No one gets divorces." she said after a moment of stunned silence.

"Honey, we can't keep living like this. Now, I know this is tough, but you've got to understand." she stood up and both her parrents stood up to go to her.

"I need some sleep." she said holding up her hands. "Dex is going back to California saturday and I want to spend tomorow with him." she said as she walked to the stairs. "Good night." she ran upstairs and locked her door behind her. Downstairs she could hear them arguing.


	46. Chapter 46

Hearing the arguing in the kitchen Louise sighed as she tried to fall back asleep. It was cold and her bed was nice and warm, but the moment she heard her name she was awake. Getting out of bed she walked downstairs to see Jacques and Pierre arguing with Albert sitting on the side watching the two. "What happened?" she jumped realizing Hugo was right behind her.

"Don't know." she said as she looked at the squabbling men. "But I think it has something to do with that paper." she eyed the paper Jacques was holding.

"Louise," Jacques realized she was in the room. "A wire came for you."

"Wait until _after_ tonight." Pierre tried to say but Jacques was too quick, Louise smiled and thanked him for it before turning her eyes to the paper. She instantly wished she hadn't. Blinking back the tears that threatened to come she quickly sat down at the table and held the telegram out to Hugo who took it carefully.

"They don't say who." she said looking up at Jacques.

"I know." he said. "I thought you would want to know though."

"They've been gone a week and a half and this is the first contact I've gotten." she said, her voice trembling. "And it's to tell me four of them are gone? They don't even say which four!" she slammed her hand down on the table and let out a long breath of air. Hugo took one look at the shaking girl and walked over.

"Come on." he said helping her up. "Let's go, you need to go upstairs."

"I'm fine where I am." she choaked then turned around and wrapped her arms around the man. He held her as she started to cry into his shirt, he had wanted to spare her the embarassment of crying in front of the triplets, three men she hardly knew but at the moment it seemed she didn't care.

About an hour later Louise was sitting on the couch with a glass of whisky in her hand and her head down, Hugo was sitting next to her, he didn't speak, no one spoke, they just sat there, finally, it was Jacques who broke the silence.

"I would re-schedule." he said softly to Pierre who looked at his older (by five minutes) brother. Pierre looked back down as Louise looked up for the first time in awhile. She had been in her own little word since she got word about the boys, every scinereo seemed to fly through her very vivid imagination, but tuning back into the real word she found she had something very important to think about.

"No." she said and they looked at her. "We have to do this tonight."

"Louise, you just found out that four of your friends are gone, we wouldn't blame you if you wanted to stay in tonight."

"No." she said shaking her head. "That's just it, I _Don't_ want to stay in. I need to do this, I need to find out what's happening so I can report back to my general, and in the event of the rest of the boys not coming back I can find out what my further orders are." she said as she stood up. "I'm taking a shower." with that she downed the rest of her whisky in one shot and went upstairs. When she got out of the shower she stood at the mirror, propping herself up against the sink she leaned forward and wiped all of the steam from her shower. Staring at her reflection she was surprised at how together she looked in the mirror. She finished drying off and got her dress she was wearing that night on and then went to her room where she sat at the mirror and started to apply makeup. As she did there was a knock on the door.

"Are you dressed?" Hugo's german accent called through the door.

"Oui." she said and the door opened. Hugo walked in and closed the door before walking over to the bed and sitting down on the edge of it.

"You're not okay." he said and she looked at his reflection in the mirror wordlessly.

"How would you know?" she finally asked as she picked up her brush and started to brush her hair.

"Because I've been there." he said and she continued to brush her hair without a word.

"You've been there?"

"I lost my wife." he said and she stopped before turning to look at the only reminder she had of her boys.

"Your wife?" she asked and he nodded.

"Leah." he said softly and she stared at him in shock.

"I didn't know you were married... Leah?" he nodded. "You married a jew?"

"I married a woman." he said and she nodded. "And they took her from me. She was staying with my parents, pregnant with our first child. I came home and found my parents in the kitchen, the house was a mess, there was blood on my mother's face. She was hysterical. Leah was my life." he said softly and Louise sat next to him on the bed.

"They took her?" she asked softly.

"Her parents were jews. We had a Christian service. We never celebrated jewish holidays. I never found out how _They_ found out."

"But they did." Louise finished his scentance and he nodded. "And afterwards you killed thirteen people." another nod from the now smoking german ex-nazi who sat next to her.

"I know what's going on in your head." he said as he stroaked the hair from her face. "Because you worry about Aldo." she nodded and he gave her a small nod. "I know you're going to go out tonight and get the information we need, and what I want to tell you is, if he doesn't come back, if none of them come back," Louise looked down at that thought. "You'll want to finish it." he continued and she nodded. "And I'll help you any way I can." he said and she looked up at him before he nodded to the mirror. Louise wrapped her arms around Hugo tightly, feeling close to the German national, she rested her head against his shoulder for a moment before pulling away and going to the mirror. She quickly finished putting on the makeup as Hugo sat in the room with her, smoking his cigarette and watching her do her hair and makeup. Tonight was it. That's what she kept telling herself. And this time it wasn't just for the mission, oh no, this time it was for all of it. For the mission, for the war, for Hugo and Leah, and most of all for her boys. Because in the end Louise realized, that's what kept her fighting.


	47. Chapter 47

The man in front of her was drunk. Drunk and by the looks of it and by his attitude he wasn't going to stop drinking. "So that's why you enlisted?" Louise asked with a fake smile, as she spoke sweetly in French.

"Oui." he nodded. "And now I'm a Captain." he grinned as he sloshed a little of his drink out of the top of his glass.

"Another." she held up her drink and the bartender moved to refill it.

"So what's it like being an actress?"

"Well," she smiled flirtily as the effects of the alcohol went to her head, it was taking everything she had not to throw her glass at the man across from her and start shooting every fucking nazi in the bar. But, no. She was calm, That's all she had to keep telling herself. Was that she was calm. She could do this. "When I've got time off from shooting I get to do basically whatever I want." she said with a shrug.

"What do you usually do?" he asked.

"Well," she said slowly. "I like to go to bars, meet interesting, handsome Captains." she flirted and the drunk man grinned. "I'd invite you back to my hotel, but I'm afraid it's less then impressive. For the life of me I couldn't get a room in the Ritz, every single room was booked up."

"Ah, that's because of the premire."

"The premire?" she asked and he nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, Nation's Pride, the film about Fredrick Zoller." he said and she nodded. "No one can get rooms at The Ritz because of it." he shrugged. "You know I'm surprised you aren't going. If I were going I'd have swept a pretty young actress off your feet and had you on my arm."

"Are you going?" she asked but instead of answering he leaned forward and looked like he was going to say aomething as he swayed dangerously then belched and fell off of his seat. Louise stared down at him for a moment before she stood up and pulled his wallet out of his pocket, the owner of the bar watched as she threw down the bills that were in the wallet on the table then tossed the wallet on top of the passed out nazi before she turned and walked outside.

"Did you find anything out?" Albert asked as he met up with her a black and a half later, he had been waiting in the alleyway reading a newspaper by the streetlight and smoking a cigarette.

"I can hold a drink better then a 200 pound german man." she said as she continued to walk. He scoffed softly and continued to walk with her. "And, there's going to be a film premiere." she continued softly as he lit another cigeratte for himself.

"A film premiere?" he asked and she nodded. "What's the film?"

"Stolz der Nation." she said softly.

"Hm." he said in thought. That was the last thing he said for the rest of the walk.

Much to Louise's distaste for the next three weeks were spent in the dark. Metaphorically speaking of course. There was no news from her uncle, no response to her wires, nothing. Pretty soon it was almost like she wasn't even fighting anymore. Because she was in Paris and alone, other then Stiglitz and the triplets she had to keep a low profile, which was only smart considering the entire fucking city was crawling with more nazis then ants on a bowl of potato salad at a picnic- Which really didn't have much to do with anything, being cooped up made Louise wish for the little things again. She longed for picnics back home, she wanted to go back to work behind a desk, and deal with Northman and his pervey attitude, she even missed her mom. One of her only outlets was going truck tipping with Pierre, it was something she found a hidden talent for, something that helped keep her mind off of the boys, something to keep her mind off of Aldo. As pissed as she was about having no form of contact with him, she was worried. Worried that he was one of the four.

"Louise," someone knocked on the door of the bathroom.

"Come in." she said from where she lay in the bath. Bubbles covered every bit of her except her shoulders, neck and head. Pierre walked in and paused then started talking.

"When you're decent come downstairs." he said before he left, closing the door behind him. About ten minutes later Louise walked downstairs wearing a dress she had lifted from the back of a truck.

"Nice of you to join us." Albert said.

"Well, you know, I can't stay away for too long." she said as she sat down. "What's up?"

"A... Friend of our's got the blueprints to the Ritz." Albert said.

"Oh?" she asked as she sat next to Hugo who nodded to her. "I'm guessing we've got a plan then." she said and the triplets smiled.

"Nothing gets by you kid." Jacques said and she smiled.

"So what do you want me to do?" she asked.


	48. Chapter 48

"Inspection?" the girl at the counter at the Ritz repeated looking surprised.

"It's just a percausion." Louise smiled looking very professional that day.

"What seems to be the issue here?" a buisness looking man asked walking to the front.

"This woman says she's from the city."

"Do you have identification?" he asked and she nodded pulling out her very cleverly forged ID papers. "And what are you looking for?" his eyes flickered over Albert who was dressed as a city worker.

"Just a routine inspection." she said simply and Albert nodded.

"Alright." he sighed with a small nod. "But please, if anyone asks, don't tell them why you're here." he pleaded and Louise smiled as she took her papers back.

"Of course." she said and the manager of the hotel took them on a long tour of the entire hotel under the guise that they were working for the city.

That night Louise, Hugo and Pierre went out 'shopping' as Pierre liked to call it. Hugo moved ahead to make sure the coast was clear while Pierre and Louise waited for his signal. Louise was grinning, apart from killing nazis, this was her favorite past time and because the nazi killing season was on hold for the time, it was the only fun she was having.

"Louise," Pierre said softly and she looked at him. "How long has it been?"

"A month and five days." she answered softly not needing to ask what he meant.

"Do you think they'll come back?"

"I don't know." she answered honestly.

"What will you do if they don't?" he asked.

"Again," she said softly. "I don't know." she looked back at him. "Why?"

"You are a beautiful girl Louise," he said as he softly cupped her face. "And yet, I see so much sadness in your eyes."

"God Pierre," she smiled. "Quit being so bloody French." she joked and looked forward for the signal.

"Louise, if they don't come back, if Aldo was one of the ones who... Didn't make it." he said softly. "You are more then welcome to stay with me." Louise pretended not to notice that Pierre had said _'Me'_ and not _'Us'_. She didn't look back at him until he softly' touched her hand. She looked back at him drawing her hand from his and looking into his eyes. "What are your plans? Surely you must have thought about it."

"Of course I've thought about it." she said with a small frown. "Not a moment goes by that I don't think about it." she sighed. "My plan is to find some way to kill all of those fucking nazis in the Ritz in two weeks. My plan is to show Germany that what they're doing is wrong. And after that, if I survive, I'm going home. Then, if Aldo is dead, I'm going to go to Tennessee and live in his house until the day I die."

"And if he's alive?" he asked.

"Then I'll consider it over." she said honestly. "If he doesn't return, but he's still alive, I know when I'm not wanted."

"But can you tell when you _Are_ wanted?" he asked before he leaned in and slowly kissed her. Louise was the one to break the kiss, pulling away at almost the exact instant his lips touched her's.

"Pierre," she said softly, before she saw Hugo's signal. "Let's work." she said as she lead the way to where her German born ally was waiting.

That evening when they got back, Louise poured herself a glass of wine from the crates of it they had just made sure would never reach the Ritz. "I don't see you as much of a wine drinker." Hugo said as he sat down at the table with her.

"Yeah, you know normally I'm not." she said as she took another drink of it. "But for whatever reason I feel like some tonight." The next morning when she woke up Louise felt a familar chruning in her stomach, she jumped up and ran across the hall before dropping to her knees in front of the toilet and emptying herself of the contints of her stomach. A moment later she felt someone pull her hair from her face. "Merci." she mumbled before she puked again.

"I told you you shouldn't drink half a bottle of unfamilar alcohol." Jacques said softly and she chuckled, before she groaned.

"Why does god hate me?" she mumbled and it was his turn to chuckle.

"If got truly hated you, he would have made sure you never heard from the boys again." he said making her look back at him. He smiled and drew a folded paper from his back pocket. "They're coming back next week." he said and she threw her arms around his legs making him fall over. She took advantage of that and hugged him tightly on the ground.

"If I didn't have hungover wine breath," she said with a wide smile. "Jacques, I'd kiss you." she said and he shook his head as she rolled off of him and jumpped up having momentarily forgotten about her hangover. "Hugo! Oh fuck." she held her head but continued to run to the Basterd's room.

"You told her?" Pierre asked as he helped his brother off of the floor.

"I couldn't hide it forever." Jacques said. "They would have come back if she knew it or not. The only difference would be when she found out."

"Or who they were coming back to." Pierre said and Jacques scoffed.

"What you want with that girl will never happen." Jacques said sharply to his brother. "So give it up. When Aldo comes back, she will be his. And you'll be a memory. What they have is love. Don't fuck that up." he said before he turned and walked down the hall leaving Pierre to his thoughts and Hugo and Louise to their excited chatter in German.


	49. Chapter 49

The morning after getting the news that the rest of the boys were coming home Louise woke up with a churning stomach, something she chalked up to having been drinking different types of alcohol all night. She fell to her knees in front of the toilet in almost a perfect mirrored image of the morning before, this time it was Hugo who was there to hold her hair (he had planned on taking a shower, but that could wait). She groaned and laid her head against the wall as Hugo gently let go of her hair and knelt down next to her. "I'm never drinking again." she said and he chuckled lightly. "I swear, Hugo, if you see me with any alcoholic drinks, I give you full permission to restrain me in any way."

"Come on." he said offering her his hands as he stood up. She took them and he lead her back to her room where she laid on the bed and he lightly touched her forhead. "You don't have a feaver.." he muttered and she shook her head.

"I'm just hung over." she said as she pulled a pillow over her face. "I feel like there's an entire Russian circus in my head." Hugo chuckled and then looked her over.

"How often have you been throwing up?" he asked and she shrugged.

"Pretty often." she mumbled. "Why? Think I caught something?"

"Might be a good idea to see a doctor." he mentioned and she sighed.

"I was afraid you'd say that." she said.

"It's not that bad." he said and she closed her eyes again with a sigh.

"See you in a few days." Louise said to the french doctor she had gone to see. She was- of course- speaking French and going under the triplet's surname- Sauvageau (which was the French version of Savage, much to her amusement). Stepping out of the doctor's office she sighed before pulling the list the triplets had made for her, along with some money, and walked to the store. After picking up what the guys asked for- a few groceries and a few things from the hardware store- she walked back to the house. Walking in like she lived there she found herself alone. After putting away the bread and few other things she walked downstairs where Albert was working hard as always. "Where is everyone?" she asked.

"Out." he shrugged. "Put your fringer there." he said gesturing to the top of a bomb he was wiring. She put her finger down on top of a bunch of criss crossed wires, a gesture that reminded her of someone tying a very dangerous bow. "How was the doctor's?"

"They asked me to come back in a few days..." she shrugged and paused. "When you say '_They're_' out..."

"Hugo is upstiars." he nodded quickly. "I think Jacques taught him to use the radios."

"Right." she nodded as she pulled her hand away from the bomb.

"Feeling okay?" he asked before pressing his hand to her forhead.

"I'm fine." she said swatting at his hand. He chuckled and she smiled before nodding to the bomb.

"It's not active." he shook his head. "I will need your help later."

"Fine." she smiled and he nodded before she went to the staircase, pausing at a rack of clothes before she pulled a dress off and walked upstairs. "Hello." she smiled at Hugo who was downstairs pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Hello." he said looking her over. "What did the doctor say?"

"To come back in a few days." she said and he nodded as she went to the kitchen and started to cook. "Jacques taught you how to use the radio I heard?"

"Just to intercept." he said. "Nothing interesting is happening. Not now anyways." She nodded, this wasn't quite news. Things were quiet right now.

"I-" she was cut off by the kitchen door opening. Looking over at the door she smiled seeing Pierre and Jacques walking in looking slightly annoyed. "What?" she asked and Pierre sighed.

"Nothing." he said rolling his eyes. "Just a lead falling through."

"_Of course it fell through, if you had listened to me and not listened to that asshole, like you always do-_" Jacques shouted at Pierre who threw his hands in the air, it was obvious the two had argued the entire way home. "How was your appointment?" Jacques asked as Pierre walked out of the room.

"It was fine, guys, I'm not dying, I just have a stomach virus." she said rolling her eyes with a small laugh. "Jesus. Even the doctor said it was probably just a virus. It is going around you know."

"Okay, well, with the boys gone and you sick..." he shrugged before kissing the top of her head like he would a kid sister.

"Quit being so French." she smirked before pushing him off with a smile. "Go man the radio. I want to know if you hear anything about the boys."

"Are you cooking?" Pierre asked from the other room.

"Are you asking me to cook?"

"Well, if you are, there's a little shopping I'd like to do first." he said and she smiled. His kind of shopping usually differed from the kind of shopping she had done earlier, and she was always glad to help.


	50. Chapter 50

"I'll be back before you know it." Dex was saying to Jess as Aldo waited a little further back with the rest of the family, Susie and the rest of the Utivitch family would be leaving two days later, everyone else had said their good byes, see you soons, and have a good flights before letting the young couple have a minute to themselves.

"I know." she said softly and he stroaked the hair from her eyes.

"Commere." he said before wrapping his arms around her. "Don't worry about everything, it'll all work out." he said softly in her ear making her smile. Looking up at him she stood on her tip toes and lightly kissed him before pulling back and sighing softly. "I'll call you." he said and she nodded before he gave one last wave to Aldo and the family, then smiled to her and boarded his plane.

"Come on kiddo." Aldo said as she walked back to them. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders they started to walk back to the truck. When they got back to Aldo's house she got out of the car and looked at her house where her dad was putting stuff into the car. "Let's make some lunch." Aldo said and Jessica looked at him, then nodded.

"Okay." she said as she turned and followed him into the house.

"Utivitch 'n me went pokin' round the attic last night." Aldo said as he cut an apple in half. Jessica was sort of half listening as she spread peanut butter on a peice of bread.

"Mmm hmm." she said as she looked out the back window, thinking about how she and Dex had stood together on the back porch, not that long ago.

"We found some pretty interestin' stuff." he continued and she nodded before Utivitch cleared his throat.

"We found the bat." he said and she stopped what she was doing.

"You have my undevided attention." she said looking at the two older men who both grinned.

That night her mom called her into the living room. It looked like she had been crying, something Jessica hadn't seen her mom do in years. "Mom, are you okay?" she asked slowly and her mom shook her head.

"Your dad moved into the motel on the highway." she said and Jessica shifted slightly. "And until all this is over, I'm going to have to start working."

"Mom, it'll be okay." Jessica said softly.

"I know sweetheart, it's just really hard right now."

"Yeah..." Jessica said slowly sensing that she wasn't going to like what her mom was about to say.

"Jess, you're going to stay with your aunt Maureen for a few weeks."

"What!?" Jessica shouted at her mom who stood up.

"I can't take care of you, work, and go through a divorce!" her mom shouted.

"I don't need you to take care of me! I'll be eighteen in two months!"

"Jess, you're going wether you like it or not."

"I say not!" Jess shouted. "Why can't I stay with dad, or Mr. Raine or something?" she asked growing more and more emotional.

"Because I've already made the arrangements with your aunt!"

"But mom!"

"No but's!"

"But I-"

"No!" Jessica sighed knowing she lost the argument. As she trudged upstairs, stomping on every step, and making sure to slam the door hardly behind her she wiped at the tears threatening to fall down her face. She rolled over and her eyes landed on her history book, and the copy of Utivitch's book on top of it. Opening the book she flipped to a page of pictures and lightly ran her fingers over Louise's picture.

"What would you do Louie?" she asked softly and rested her chin in the palm of her left hand as she looked down at the pictures. The next morning Jessica woke up sprawled across her bed with her face resting on the open pages of The Life and Times of a Basterd. After peeling her face off of a picture of a baseball bat weilding Donny Donowitz she took a shower, got dressed and went downstairs, ignoring her mom's pleading looks as she slipped Louise's jacket on she walked to the door only to be stopped by her mom closing the door.

"We have to talk." she said and Jess turned away.

"I have nothing to say."

"It's for the best Jess!"

"Best for who mom?!" Jessica shouted. "Is it really for the best, or is it just better for you not to have me running around your feet?"

"Where did you get this jacket?" Mary asked trying to pull it off of Jessica. "I know you've got nicer clothes then this, come upstairs we can talk about it and you can dress a little nicer, maybe give it another go with Luke and you'll feel better, I know you must be heartbroken-"

"No, Fuck Luke, and Fuck dressing to impress mom!" Jessica shouted as she shoved her mom's hands off of the jacket. "There's more important things then always looking nice, or always being with the person who looks best on your arm!" she scowled. "No wonder dad's leaving you!" with that Mary slapped Jessica across the face. Hard. It was the first time she had laid a hand on the girl since she was five and shattered a glass cat Mary had as a decoration on the coffee table. Jessica didn't flinch, didn't move, just stood there, staring at her mother, before she nodded, turned and opened the door.

"Wait, when are you coming back?" Mary called, but Jessica didn't answer, just walked across the street and disspeared into the house she never seemed to want to leave.


	51. Chapter 51

"Louise!" turning around Louise was surprised to see Ava, one of Irma's girls.

"Ava!" Louise smiled and hugged the beautiful girl. "Call me Isabelle." she whispered in Ava's ear as they hugged, then let go of each other, linking arms they walked together down the street smiling at the German men who looked them over. "How long have you been here?" Louise asked.

"A week, maybe two." Ava shrugged as they walked slowly, speaking in soft French.

"And Aunt Irma?"

"She asked me to pick you up." Ava said simply. Louise nodded and they walked to the Ritz, stepped into the elevator and went to the second floor. They went to the room Irma was running her buisness out of and she turned and smiled warmly, before Ava turned and walked out.

"May I ask how you knew I was here?" Louise asked.

"We saw you inspecting the hotel." Irma said and Louise smirked. "Did you get what you needed?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that Irma." Louise said with a small shake of her head.

"Well, I just thought-" Irma was cut off by a knock on the door. "You're my neice."

"Isabelle." Louise smiled as she sat on the couch and picked up a brush and started to brush her hair. As Irma opened the door her brush faltered and she paused mid brush in shock as Hans Landa walked into the room and lightly kissed Irma's hand. Louise quickly started to brush her hair again as Hans looked around the room, his gaze settling on her.

"Well, I came to discuss buisness with the beautiful Ms. Landry, and instead I find myself tongue tied in the presence of an angel." he said looking Louise over with a sly smile.

"My neice, Isabelle." Irma smiled. "She just got here today."

"Hello." he smiled and Louise smiled plesently.

"Bonjour Monsieur." Louise smiled innocently.

"You just arrived? From where may I ask?"

"Orleans." she said simply. "But we moved around a lot."

"And what is your reason for coming to Paris?"

"To visit my Aunt of course." Louise said naturally.

"And your parents let you visit such an aunt?" he asked looking at Irma who looked darkly at him, but he continued to smile at Louise.

"My poor brother died in a fire over a year ago." Irma said quickly. "It took him, Isabelle's mother and her ten year old sister." Louise looked down and sadened at the memory of her dead family.

"What a pity." Landa said softly before he walked over to the couch and gestured to the spot next to Louise. "May I sit down?"

"Of course." she said and he sat down- very closely to her, she couldn't help but notice. Looking up at him with tears in her eyes she tried to smile, then looked down to avoid his eye with shame at the idea of crying in front of him. "She was so young." she managed to say and he nodded.

"Yes, death rarely takes those who deserve it." he said and she looked up at him through her eyelashes. _I can think of a few people..._ "Do you work for your aunt?" he asked as he lightly ran his finger down her face, ending at her chin he tilted her face so she was staring into his eyes.

"Oui." she said softly and could see Irma nod.

"I'm having dinner with a few friends tonight. Would you like to join me?"

"Oui." she smiled.

"I'll pick you up here at six." he said and she nodded.

"Perfect." she said. "I'll be waiting." with that he kissed her knuckles, stood up and left the room, chatting to Irma as they walked to the door. When he was gone Irma waited a moment before checking the hallway. When she was sure he was gone she turned to Louise who smiled.

"I see why you've had Ava watching me." Louise said softly and Irma nodded.

"You did quite well." Irma said and Louise nodded as she stood up.

"I'll be back at five." she said as she walked to the door and hugged Irma lightly before leaving. She had a lot of work to do in the next few hours.


End file.
